Page 13 - BusinessWest August 22, 2022
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 Dinesh Patel, seen here in the lobby of
the soon- to-open Marriott in downtown Springfield, says the facility was designed to reflect the history and culture of the city.
opportunity in the once-thriving but then-chal- lenged retail and office complex in the heart of downtown, and have made the most of it, finding some imaginative reuse of many spaces. These include the recruitment of the YMCA, which
has brought its childcare and fitness-center operations, as well as its administrative offices, to Tower Square. It also includes that new and decidedly different kind of Big Y store in space formerly occupied by CVS.
As for the hotel, which will open in time for the induction ceremonies for the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Big E, Patel said the timing is good for the property to come back online.
“Gas prices are coming down, and people are traveling again,” he said. “They want to get out and go places; we see a lot of pent-up demand.”
As he offered a tour of the nearly-ready facil- ity, Patel noted the many nods to Springfield,
its history, and its culture, from the basketball- themed art in the fitness center to the wall cov- erings depicting blueprints of noted inventions that happened in Springfield (from the monkey wrench to rail cars) to the many photographs of ‘old Springfield’ found on the walls of the stairs leading to the meeting facilities on the sixth floor.
“We wanted to tell the story of Springfield,” Patel said. “And we tell that story all through the hotel.”
Increasingly, that story is one of progress and recovery from COVID, not only in the down- town, where much of the interest is focused, but in many other neighborhoods as well, said both Sarno and Sheehan, noting that neighbor-
Springfield
Continued on page 68
 tions to that hotel and planned reopening of the facility, Dinesh Patel showed off finishing-touch work in several areas, including the lobby, the fitness center, the pool room, and some of the meeting rooms.
He also opened the door the large ballroom, revealing a training session for dozens of the more than 180 people expected to be hired before the facility opens its doors. Like most
of the renovation work itself, conducted at the
height of the pandemic and its aftermath amid supply-chain issues and soaring prices for many products and materials, the hiring process has been a stern challenge as qualified help remains in short supply.
But for Patel and partner Mid Vitta, whose work to reclaim the Marriott flag — and reinvent Tower Square — earned them BusinessWest’s Top Entrepreneur award for 2022, it has been what amounts to a labor of love. The two saw an
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