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Before the coronavirus disrupted the hotel industry, the sector was already declining. A CBRE report showed that the industry had the lowest growth in revenue in 2019 since recovering from the 2009 industry recession. The pandemic exacerbated the situation, turning many already-failing hotels into ghost towns.

A company with a mission of creating housing it says working people can afford is overhauling an old Port Royal hotel on Ribaut Road into 145 new studio apartments that will rent for $1,000 a month.

Vivo Living, an affiliate of adaptive reuse developer Vivo Investments LLC, has purchased a vacant two-tower hotel property in Baltimore that was previously a dual-branded Radisson and Holiday Inn. 

“At Vivo, it’s about the living community,” Norville said. “We really put a lot of time and effort into these spaces to curate them. We put in the game rooms — the areas where the residents can be social and interact, not just with the residents themselves — our biggest goal is for our residents to make friends — but also for our staff to make friends with the residents as well.”

Vivo Living specializes in revitalizing hotels into affordably priced housing. The company has been working to transform the former Best Western at 1900 Ken Pratt Blvd. into apartments.

Developer addresses US housing crisis by repurposing hotels into apartments in critical markets.

SEANA SMITH: Empty hotels are getting a bit of a makeover. Investors are going in and buying closed hotels and motels and turning them into small apartments.