The Eldridge Hotel reopens today, fresh off a four-month makeover that cost more than $2 million and is designed to give the landmark property new life for the 21st century.

The Eldridge, 701 Mass., is making its grand re-opening as an upscale, 48-room boutique operation with refined decor, updated features and a restaurant and a bar intended to compete with — and complement — the already vibrant retail, cultural and entertainment scene along Massachusetts Street.

The hotel also will have valet parking, now that the ownership group has secured at least 60 private, off-street parking spaces.

“We’re bringing the property up to a higher standard than we even thought about before,” said Bobby Douglass, a former Kansas University quarterback and member of the investment group that bought the hotel late last year. “We decided to do it right — as a really exemplary hotel, instead of just another place.

“We’ve gone beyond making it just another place to stay. It’s more classic, more of a higher standard. We’d even like to make it a four-star hotel, and bring it to a level that a historic hotel should be.”

The investment group led by Douglass and Mitchell and Susan Chaney bought the 80-year-old Eldridge for $2.92 million during a bankruptcy auction in October, then set about an ambitious remodeling plan that started at $1.65 million and would soon shoot past $2 million.

The hotel closed Jan. 3 for the start of work, and before long the interior looked more like a war-torn high rise than a place where dignitaries such as Martin Luther King Jr., Hubert Humphrey and Lord Clement Atlee — once prime minister of Great Britain — had stayed the night.

Fresh look

Today, the refinished terrazzo floors and new carpets, furnishings, paint, bathroom tiles, sinks, toilets and other items may stand as outward signs of the remodeling, but other, less obvious upgrades are evidence of the ownership’s long-term commitment. The hotel has a new roof, elevator, air-conditioning system and electrical wiring.

Bobby Douglass, one of the new owners of the Eldridge Hotel, 701 Mass., studies a new menu in the renovated bar area. The hotel has new decor, refinished floors and other upgrades that cost more than million.

The initial April completion date had been pushed back only once — to today — and the renovation work days that started at 6 a.m. and ended after the sun went down are finished.

Gone are the pink countertops, Victorian-era furnishings and flower-print wallpaper brought in during the late 1980s. Now the hotel shows off a consistent tan color scheme that lets the interior decor — black leather chairs, hardwood furnishings and black-and-white photographs — accent the hotel’s 80-year-old structure.

“It’s been a big undertaking,” said Tim Fritzel, president of Gene Fritzel Construction Co. Inc. and an owner of the hotel. “They should have had us on ‘Extreme Makeover: Hotel Edition.’ It’s been amazing, the transformation.”

The hotel hasn’t lost its historic foundations that landed it on the National Register of Historic Places and have earned it a spot on the list of Historic Hotels of America, maintained by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The Eldridge’s current structure was built beginning in 1925, and completed in 1926 (north half) and 1928 (south half). The place had five stories and 150 rooms.

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Total project cost: $250,000.

Rebuild, revamp, remodel

The hotel is the fourth incarnation of lodgings at the corner of Seventh and Massachusetts streets. The first was given the name Free State Hotel in 1855, but the gathering place for slavery opponents was destroyed within a year during a pro-slavery attack.

In 1858, a new hotel had been built on the site for $76,000 and leased to Col. Shalor Eldridge, a proprietor of the American Hotel in Kansas City, Mo. But that Eldridge House was destroyed in 1863 during Quantrill’s Raid, an attack by border ruffians that left most of Lawrence in ruins.

The third version of the hotel, finished in 1866, stood until it fell into disrepair. It was razed to make way for the five-story hotel that stands today — after having been split into apartments and later reborn, in the 1980s, as a 48-suite hotel owned by an investment group led by Rob Phillips.

The latest makeover includes more than appearance.

Sterling Eubank, who works for Preparation Paint of Lawrence, does some touch-up work on a new sign outside the Eldridge Hotel.

The former Shalor’s Restaurant has been expanded and revamped, with a new kitchen, new furnishings and a new menu.

The restaurant’s name: Ten, the number Douglass wore as a KU quarterback in the 1960s. Diners will order what’s billed as “great American food,” from cheese quesadilla appetizers at $4.95 to entrees that include six versions of filet mignon, with prices up to $34.95.

The former Jayhawker bar keeps its name, but not much else. Gone are the two-room layout and horse-saddle seats, replaced with an open layout, five plasma screen televisions and a black-granite bar. The drink menu includes draft and bottled beers, 14 wines by the glass and 33 bottles of wine, from $18 Beringer White Zinfandel to the $98 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon.

Valet parking

Dion Hancock, who works for Joel Fritzel, is shown in January 2005 removing carpet glue that covered the ballroom floor at the Eldridge. The terrazzo pattern underneath has been refinished.

The hotel owners recently acquired the former home of Mojo’s, a restaurant that had been located behind the hotel. The acquisition included an adjacent structure that has room for parking.

The moves added to the hotel’s stable of private, off-street parking spaces — and are playing into future plans for hotel expansion.

“That’s what our plan should be,” Douglass said between phone calls at the Jayhawker bar, where dozens of invited guests convened Monday night for a food-tasting event. “We need to think that way — whether it’s 20, 30, 40, 50 rooms, our lobby and our restaurant and bar are set up for that.”

But that work remains fodder for the future. Today, Douglass, the Chaneys and other investors are focused on getting the hotel ready for its first guests; a handful are booked for tonight, the weekend is nearly full and the next weekend — with Kansas University’s graduation — is booked solid.

With room rates running $120 to $130 during the week and $135 to $145 for the weekends — $170 to $180 during special events, such as KU graduation — the owners know they’re at the top end of Lawrence’s approximately 1,000 hotel rooms.

But with historic suites, valet parking, a bar, dining room and prime downtown location, the owners are confident they can make it work.

“This is a commitment to the community,” said Susan Chaney, who bought into the hotel where she and her husband met as employees more than 30 years ago. “This is the most wonderful feeling I’ve had in a long, long time.”