Two massive hotels within Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center complex have been chosen as headquarters for staff and media attending the Democratic National Convention, an event that could provide a major step forward in the city hotels’ recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Democratic National Convention Committee on Tuesday announced that the municipally owned Hyatt Regency McCormick Place and Marriott Marquis Chicago hotels, which have 2,463 rooms combined, will serve as the base of operations during the event, taking place August 19 to 22, where President Joe Biden is expected to be renominated.
Events will be held within McCormick Place, North America’s largest convention center, and the United Center arena, which is home to the NBA’s Chicago Bulls and NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks.
Based on past presidential-nominating conventions, this summer’s DNC could provide Chicago hotels with their best August revenue numbers in more than a decade, according to a CoStar analysis.
“We are proud to partner with these key hotels and the union labor that powers them to make the McCormick Place our home base for convention week,” DNCC Executive Director Alex Hornbrook said in a statement.
Expected to attract as many as 7,000 delegates and up to 50,000 total visitors, the convention has the potential to lift a Chicago hotel market that has been slower to recover from the pandemic than many other cities, in part, because Chicago’s hospitality industry is heavily reliant on massive events at McCormick Place.
The McCormick Center complex and the Navy Pier tourist attraction are owned by the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority.
The 41-story Marriott Marquis Chicago at 2121 S. Prairie Ave. has 1,205 rooms. The 33-story Hyatt Regency McCormick Place at 2233 S. Martin Luther King Drive has 1,258 rooms.
“We are honored and excited for our campus hotels to serve as the headquarters for the 2024 Democratic National Convention,” Larita Clark, CEO of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, said in the statement. “With our 23 union partners and nearly 3,000 campus employees, we welcome the DNC to McCormick Place. We look forward to creating a spectacular event.”
The Republican National Convention is planned for another Midwest city, Milwaukee, from July 15 to 18.
This year’s DNC will be the 26th major political-nominating event held in Chicago, but the first since Democrats renominated President Bill Clinton in 1996.
Historically significant conventions held in Chicago include Abraham Lincoln being selected as the Republican presidential candidate in 1860 at a convention facility known as the Wigwam. That structure at Lake Street and Wacker Drive burned down in 1869, four years after Lincoln was assassinated and two years before the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
Another memorable convention was the DNC in 1968 when Vice President Hubert Humphrey became the presidential nominee amid the emotional aftermath of the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.
After seeing large gatherings of Vietnam War protestors ahead of the convention, then-Mayor Richard J. Daley called in the National Guard.
Humphrey emerged from a chaotic week that included bloody clashes between police and protesters, later leading to the infamous “Chicago Seven” trial for protest organizers.
Humphrey went on to lose the presidential election to Republican Richard Nixon. The arena where the convention was held, the International Amphitheatre adjacent to the Union Stockyards on the South Side, was demolished in 1999.
Among other presidents who were nominated or renominated in Chicago were Ulysses Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, Franklin Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower.