By late 2005, rising hotel occupancies and room rates were luring hotel investors into paying premium prices, and so in October the House of Blues Hotel was put up for sale. HOB Entertainment Inc., based in Los Angeles, figured it would get $200,000 per room, or $75 million for the hotel. And there was more.

They also wanted to sell the 900-car public garage at Marina City, and the retail space below it, 115,000 square feet to be exact. Tenants of the commercial property included 10pin Bowling Lounge, Crunch Fitness, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and two restaurants, BIN 36 Chicago and Smith & Wollensky. HOB would keep the nightclub.

Secured Capital Corporation was hired to market the hotel and adjacent commercial property. In early 2006, they sold it to LaSalle Hotel Properties of Bethesda, Maryland, for $114.5 million. The announcement was made on February 22.

Following a $17 million renovation, the hotel would be renamed Hotel Sax Chicago – in deference to the city’s musical traditions, according to the hotel operator, Gemstone Hotels & Resorts International LLC, which took over from Loews Hotels in March 2006.

Hotel Sax would continue its strategic partnership of cross-promotion with House of Blues, which by this time was owned by Live Nation.

Gemstone principal Mark van Hartesvelt noted that HOB had not, as it turned out, made much effort to create a brand of hotels beyond just the one in Chicago. “We wanted to relaunch and reposition the property," he told the Chicago Tribune in February 2007.

van Hartesvelt said he was concerned about dropping a well-known brand name, “but our affiliation with the club is so strong, and we’re packaging so well together, that I hope we’ll be fine.” Mark van Hartesvelt

In addition to Hotel Sax, Gemstone managed 20 hotels and resorts in the U.S., including the Carlton Hotel in New York.

Mario Mazzini, who was previously general manager of Le Meridien in Chicago (now Conrad Chicago), was hired as general manager of Hotel Sax.

This photo from July 2, 2007, shows the new Hotel Sax sign being installed.

Main entrance to Hotel Sax in late afternoon from parking ramp of east residential tower. Fifth floor terrace of hotel is visible at top of frame (6-July-07).

Renovation was completed in June 2007. On August 16, 2007, Glenn Jeffers of the Chicago Tribune described Hotel Sax as “a stylish, urban-chic hotel in one of Chicago’s most envious locations.”