Developers of Pullman’s historic Hotel Florence and the surrounding area announced plans to create a “mind-blowing entertainment experience” that is mixed with history and a new hub for local artists to showcase their talents — all headlined by a “world class” music venue.

The roughly $100 million revitalization project will transform the nearly 145-year-old hotel within the Pullman National Historic Park into a boutique hotel with new restaurants. The hotel’s annex will be rehabilitated and a concert hall will be added in the old Pullman Factory across the street.

Construction is set to begin in March 2027, with its completion expected in late 2028.

“We are breathing new life into this incredible site, while preserving a treasured part of Illinois history,” Gov. JB Pritzker said Tuesday at an event announcing the project.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources provided $21 million in funding, making the project the largest public-private partnership for the IDNR. The department issued a Request for Solicitations last year, searching for a development team to revitalize the state-owned hotel at 11111 S. Forrestville Ave. and its 1914 annex.

The state has partnered with the Chicago-based development group Celadon Partners. Scott Henry, CEO of Celadon, said his family grew up and worked in Pullman, making this project personal.

He pointed to several similarities in Chicago and the U.S. between 1881, when Hotel Florence opened, and now. Chicago was on the heels of a pandemic, American politics were “chaotic” (President James Garfield barely won his election in 1881 and was assassinated soon after) and Pullman factories had revolutionized the city’s economy and advanced the railway industry.

Henry sees similar advancements happening in the Far South Side with the development of the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, about a 15 minute drive north of the Pullman National Historic Site. The neighborhood also has an Amazon distribution center and the Pullman Community Center, 10355 S. Woodlawn Ave. The CTA Red Line expansion project also plans to extend into Pullman.

“Instead of our new guests coming here to buy Pullman cars, they’ll be treated to a mind-blowing entertainment experience in the former Pullman Factory,” Henry said. “I think of this area as becoming the beating heart of Pullman again. And if it’s going to be the beating heart of Pullman again, its soul certainly will be the Art of Culture.”

The arts organization Art of Culture is partnering with the developer to help bring talent and artists to the site’s future music venue. Art of Culture CEO Heather Smith said the artistic hub only becomes Pullman’s “beating heart” because of the people it will attract.

“Art of Culture will really tap into our community and tap into what we know exists here today, and that’s the artistic energy of the South Side that sometimes needs platform and needs spaces to be highlighted,” Smith said.

She imagines a space buzzing with energy and art exhibitions, in addition to live music.

“We know it’s the vibration, the rhythm, the sounds that will come from Pullman, from this space that will be felt across the city,” Smith said.

Architecture firm Farr Associates is designing the project.

“We have a more intangible duty as architects, as designers, as historians to the translation of 150 years of cultural heritage and grassroots advocacy,” Mercedes Miley, president of Farr Associates and a Pullman resident, said.

Miley also requested residents to share with them any artifacts or photographs from past events at Hotel Florence.

“It’s a very well-documented site that as part of this project, we get to tell those stories again,” Miley said.

The hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969. It was saved from demolition when the Historic Pullman Foundation bought the hotel in 1975. The state purchased the building in 1991.

The hotel has been closed since 2000, with the exception of opening for occasional tours.