NEW ORLEANS, La. — The Fairmont name is back in New Orleans. Fairmont New Orleans, a 250-room hotel built inside the former Bank of New Orleans tower downtown, opened this week, ending an absence of about two decades for the luxury brand.
Fairmont last operated in the city from 1965 to 2005 at a different downtown hotel on Roosevelt Way. That property came back after Hurricane Katrina as the Roosevelt New Orleans, which sits just around the corner from the new Fairmont.
The new hotel is the 100th Fairmont worldwide and the 19th in the United States. Metairie-based Kailas Cos., which bought the bank building in 2014, developed the project, and Fairmont runs it. Rooms start at $459 a night.
The 31-story tower was designed in 1970 by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The Fairmont fills 17 of its floors, while the lower floors went to a separate 216-room Element hotel that began taking guests in February. The redevelopment kept original features such as the entry canopy, bronze paneling and a cypress ceiling.
Two restaurants developed with chef Emeril Lagasse’s Emeril Group opened with the hotel. Delmonico Steakhouse is the first location of that concept outside Las Vegas, where the original opened at the Venetian in 1999. Across the lobby, the Cafe by Emeril handles breakfast and lunch. The new steakhouse is separate from Emeril’s Delmonico, the longtime restaurant on St. Charles Avenue that did not reopen after the pandemic.
More is on the way, including a rooftop bistro, a late-night cocktail bar, a rooftop pool and a 10,000-square-foot spa. For conventions and events, nine venues add up to over 19,000 square feet, enough for groups from 10 to 500 people.
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