After an extensive facelift in which the former Red Lion Hotel was taken down to just studs and concrete, Hotel Eastlund will open in May. Managing partner Alan Battersby says the Eastlund, with its modern design elements and floor-to-ceiling windows, will “help drive the revitalization of the Lloyd District” as the first luxury boutique hotel on the inner eastside.

Battersby says the hotel’s close proximity to the Oregon Convention Center (it’s right across the street) as well as the central eastside’s growing creative district will likely bring hoards of locals as well as business and convention travelers to the hotel.

“We believe the Lloyd District is going to explode with new development and options for the leisure traveler, giving the area an entirely new ambience,” says Battersby. “The hotel will be the catalyst to draw more travelers and local residents to this part of town.”

Hotel Eastlund is being developed by Grand Ventures Hotel, LLC, a team with an impressive track record of revitalizing older hotels into modern feats of hospitality, like Southwest Portland’s Hotel Modera or Seattle’s Hotel Andra and Hotel Deca. Portland's Holst Architecture, which also drove the Hotel Modera project, is overseeing the renovation and designe.

“Hotel Eastlund will transform the Lloyd Center area just as Hotel Modera helped to transform the southwest area of downtown,” says Battersby. “We always believed that once Hotel Modera was completed, it would draw more people to the south end of town. We were right. It helped complete the circle for the Portland Mall, and several new restaurants opened. In contrast, the east side has been so underserved—until now.”

The hotel will feature 168 rooms and suites, two executive boardrooms, a gourmet rooftop restaurant with chef David Machado, fitness/business centers, a flexible ballroom space, and an art collection commissioned by local curator Janelle Baglien. Reservations are available now at hoteleastlund.com.