Situated in Baltimore’s posh Mount Vernon neighborhood, the Ivy Hotel features everything a boutique hotel guest could possibly want: An all-inclusive experience with fireplaces in every guestroom, unique artwork adorning the walls, tea time, and a London black cab service. With exotic décor inspired by its Gilded Age beginnings, the 18-room hotel—composed of a mansion and two rowhomes—goes for around $700 per night, a rate rivaling only one other (chain) hotel in the area. And its owners first wanted to turn the unique buildings into office space.
When majority owners Eddie and Sylvia Brown and minority owner Azola Companies scooped up the properties that would become the Ivy Hotel, which were right across the street from the headquarters of the Browns’ investment firm, Brown Capital Management, they seemed like a perfect way to expand Brown Capital’s offices. Any leftover space would go to refurbishing the part of the property that became The Inn at Government House in the 1980s.
“We originally embarked on what I’ll call a ‘major redecoration’ to simply update it and redecorate it, rather than a total makeover,” explains Marty Azola, chairman and chief executive officer of Azola Companies. “That was the original concept, which didn’t last long.”
Until this project, Azola Companies, which also served as general contractor and developer for the Ivy Hotel, had never worked on a hotel. But with a knack for historic restoration and adaptive reuse projects that include, coincidentally, the brownstone that houses Brown Capital Management, Azola says the Ivy Hotel is his company’s best work to date.
When work first began on the would-be hotel, Azola and the Browns, who have worked on seven projects together, enlisted the help of Garret Hotel Consultants. Azola explained what he wanted from the space, but the consulting agency pushed for something bigger and better—becoming a Relais & Châteaux-affiliated hotel. The owners, always looking for a new challenge, agreed to move in that direction, quadrupling their initial budget to $18 million to not just restore the building to its former glory, but also honor its history through the design.
And the core mansion of the Ivy Hotel has quite a storied history. Built in 1889 as the private home of industrialist John Gilman, the property has housed bottle cap inventor William Painter, a Johns Hopkins diagnostician, the Baltimore Parks and Recreation Department, and most recently, an inn to host dignitaries visiting the Baltimore area. The adjoining rowhouses are historic in their own right, the former homes of upper-middle class families throughout the ages.
Learning as they went with the help of the consulting agency, Azola Companies was careful to update the space without making it too modern, or, in the other direction, too much like a museum. The owners turned to Joszi Meskan Associates to help with the design, which mixes pieces from a 15-room Relais & Châteaux-affiliated hotel in Connecticut and new pieces hand-selected by Meskan.
“The wealthy people who lived here in the late 1800s were world travelers. You see old photos of parlors just heaped with stuff—animal skins and furnishings that they’d collected. Joszi thought it would be kind of fun to pick up on that theme, but with a modern context,” Azola describes.
Combining Azola’s adaptive reuse knowledge with Meskan’s eye and Garret Hotel Consultant’s expertise, the property opened in June 2015.
With no boutique comparison in the area, Azola says the banking community was a bit skeptical with how the property would perform. “It was a little ‘shoot from the hip,’ but it has proven to be successful,” Azola says. Since opening, the hotel has hosted Relais & Châteaux regulars, as well as locals who just want to dine at the hotel’s Magdalena restaurant and stay overnight to celebrate anniversaries and holidays.
“It’s like staying at your aunt’s mansion,” he laughs. And he would know firsthand what the experience is like. “I did just stay for my anniversary, I admit.”
