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The high-end Hotel Carmichael in Carmel has enjoyed better-than-expected financial results since it opened four years ago and could be expanded, according to hotel leaders.
City and hotel officials for the first time made financial data available for the $58 million luxury hotel during last week’s Carmel City Council meeting. The numbers, which cannot be independently verified, show the hotel has exceeded expectations for revenue and occupancy since it opened in 2020 in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hotel leadership said the hotel’s results lend support to a plan to expand it by 33 rooms using the adjacent Wren apartment building that is under construction at Carmel City Center.
The 122-room Hotel Carmichael, which is across the Monon Greenway from the Center for the Performing Arts, was the brainchild of former seven-term Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard, who first envisioned building a destination hotel for the city decades ago.
The hotel is owned by CCC Boutique Hotel LLC, a public-private partnership between the city and Carmel-based development company Pedcor. The hotel is managed by Irving, Texas-based Coury Hospitality and is part of the Marriott Hotels Autograph Collection.
Laurie Siler, senior vice president of Pedcor Cos., told city councilors that revenue at Hotel Carmichael increased from just under $2 million in 2020 to about $16.5 million last year.
Occupancy rates increased from 39.2% in 2020 to 63.3% in 2021 to 80.6% last year. Before the hotel opened, leadership initially projected 77% occupancy after four years, Siler said. She added that average hotel occupancy on the north side of the Indianapolis area was 62.4% in 2023.
The Hotel Carmichael features the Adagio Lounge Bar, Feinstein’s cabaret and jazz club and Vivante Restaurant & Bar, which have aided in growing the hotel’s revenue, Siler said.
“The Adagio bar has gone to something that we never expected it to be, so that is very much a happening place, and then Feinstein’s,” Siler said. “And, so, you’re getting a lot more different elements, different components of the hotel adding to that revenue.”
Carmel Redevelopment Commission Director Henry Mestetsky told councilors that financial data is typically “closely guarded in the hotel world” and its Hotel Carmichael leaders were not required to release the figures under the terms of the public-private partnership between Pedcor and the Carmel Redevelopment Commission.
“Having said that, Mayor [Sue] Finkam’s administration is all about transparency, and how the hotel has been doing has been a question in the voters’ minds, even though technically that data is not public,” Mestetsky said. “And, so, the best course of action is to have that open and transparent conversation with understanding that this isn’t normal.”
A study led by Finkam in 2021 when she was a member of the City Council, criticized the way the city’s administration and the Carmel Redevelopment Commission handled financing for the hotel’s construction, as well as slow communication about the project’s $18.5 million cost increase from its original $40 million estimate.
Pedcor Cos. CEO Bruce Cordingley said expanding the hotel after four years of business is under consideration. He said downtown’s Conrad Indianapolis is the Hotel Carmichael’s only area competitor, but “it was not the goal for us to compete with anybody else.”
“People love this hotel,” he said. “Many of these people come back year after year, so the hotel is not only getting repeat business, but it gets referral from these people.”
Cordingley said Pedcor is looking to expand the 122-room Hotel Carmichael by making 33 suites under construction at the neighboring The Wren building part of the hotel. Having 155 rooms would allow the hotel to hold more events, conventions and business meetings that it currently turns down, he said.
The six-story, 160,000-square-foot The Wren is being developed by Pedcor with an expected completion date of June.
Cordingley said Pedcor would welcome investment from the city, but the company is not “expecting or needing it.” Cordingley added that the city could sell its interest in the Hotel Carmichael, but he does not think this is the right time.
“We believe the incentive you have helped us create with the existing Hotel Carmichael will enable us to help you and us expand it, making the existing hotel more efficient,” Cordingley said.
Correction: This story has been corrected to say that Coury Hospitality is based in Irving, Texas. See additional corrections here.
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Cordingly is misleading when he says that the Carmichael’s only area competitor is the Conrad in downtown. The JW Marriott, Omni Severin, Westin, Bottleworks, and Le Meridien all match or exceed the Carmichael in class, amenities, and price. And soon, the $101 million InterContinental Hotel at 17 W. Market St. with 170 rooms and a rooftop bar overlooking the Soldiers and Sailors Monument will join this exclusive club, followed in 2026 by the new $751.6 million Hilton Signia at the convention center. So that’s eight hotels the Carmichael now or soon will have to compete against.
As someone who worked in the hotel industry for nearly a decade, including work in events and revenue management, I disagree. All of the hotels you listed, other than maybe Bottleworks, are beneath the Carmichael. Ironworks is probably considered a competitor too. Those two properties are hard to compare because they aren’t part of a national brand.
Other than that, it’s just the Conrad. The JW isn’t considered a competitor. It’s a massive convention center hotel that’s on the lower end of Marriott’s “luxury” brands. Neither the Carmichael nor Conrad are at the top of Marriot or Hilton’s luxury brands either, but they’re the two top hotels for the national brands in the metro area.
Honestly, the Carmichael punches a bit above it’s weight, while the Conrad is beneath where it should be. I’m surprised the Carmichael didn’t become a Luxury Collection by Marriott property. The Conrad is basically a glorified Hilton at this point. That property is sad for a luxury brand, and needs a ton of money invested in renovating the guest rooms.
Signia will likely be competing with JW, so it shouldn’t become competition for this hotel either. Depending on the final product and amenities, the Intercontinental could definitely be a competitor when it opens.
Sell high. Perhaps Carmel should sell its interest and turn it over entirely to the private sector.
Apparently people in Carmel like to go to the Hotel Carmichael for staycations. The smaller size is an advantage in that it’s easier to fill, and there aren’t a lot of boutique hotel options on the northside. I wouldn’t be surprised at some point if more luxury hotel brands plant their flag in Carmel, as that’s already happened in similar suburbs of bigger cities.
I live in Carmel and love their lobby piano bar. Rather than expanding, maybe they could build a second hotel like this in the area.
The real big question is did they make any principal payments on the bonds that were issued to pay for the hotel. It has ongoing practice in Carmel to pay only interest on bond debt for years, and then at some point have to make a Ballon payment or refinance. Recently this was exposed with water & sewer debt. You can’t really tell what the profit was without an audited financial statement which was not provided to the IBJ. If Bruce Cordenley/Pecor profits are so great on the hotel they would buy out the City of Carmel. As for the occupancy rate of 80 plus percent, it is far from believable since the average occupancy rate national wide is in the 60% range. Remember, private public partnerships are political entity , we know politicians lie.