Aquinnah Hotel

Chicago's City Council has cleared a 26-story, 250-room hotel tower for 6402 S. Stony Island Avenue in Woodlawn, steps from the Obama Presidential Center construction site. Developer Aquinnah Investment Trust, led by Allison Davis, has zoning approval and a roughly $100 million budget in hand, but no hotel operator, brand, or opening date has been named.

The place

The site sits at 6402-6420 S. Stony Island Avenue, at the corner of East 64th Street in Woodlawn on Chicago's South Side. It faces Jackson Park, where the Obama Presidential Center campus has been under construction since 2021 and is expected to draw roughly 800,000 visitors a year once open. The University of Chicago's Hyde Park campus is also within easy reach. It is a stretch of Stony Island Avenue that has seen almost no hotel-scale investment in decades.

The concept

Aquinnah Investment Trust, whose application lists Chicago real estate developer and attorney Allison Davis as sole beneficiary, first floated a hotel tower for the site in early 2025. The Chicago Plan Commission gave first-round approval in August 2025 to a reduced design (26 stories and 316 feet, down from an original 336-foot proposal) and the City Council granted final zoning approval on October 13, 2025. The plan calls for roughly $100 million in construction cost, a four-story podium with 118 parking spaces, ground-floor retail and office space, and a multi-story lobby, on top of which sits the 26-story hotel block. No construction timeline has been set, and the project drew community pushback over displacement and affordability, with local groups pressing for a Community Benefits Agreement.

Dining & wellness

Approved plans describe a fifth-floor outdoor amenity deck with a swimming pool, cabanas, a pergola with grills, and bar seating, plus additional outdoor terraces on the 13th floor and at the penthouse level. The project also includes a conference center. No restaurant concept, chef, or food-and-beverage operator has been disclosed.