10 New Hotels for Events and Meetings in Chicago

Argent Restaurant & Raw Bar opened in the Dana Hotel and Spa in late April. Decked with reclaimed materials, the interior is inspired by Chicago in the late 1800s and has a grey and purple color scheme and chairs covered in shark leather. On the second floor, a private event space called Peristyle has its own bar and raw bar.

The Acme Hotel Company took over a former Comfort Inn & Suites in River North in April, and the property underwent a $3 million renovation. The boutique hotel has 130 rooms (one is pictured here) and an industrial-style bar and lounge set to open in the fall. The meeting room, on the second floor, can hold conferences for 40 and has windows overlooking the city skyline.

Soho House, a London-based chain of private members clubs is scheduled to open a Chicago outpost in spring 2014. Set to take over a 1900s warehouse on Green Street, the property will have amenities for business travelers such as stay rooms and free Wi-Fi; some of its spaces will also be available for private events. The venue will have 35 rooms, a courtyard, an enclosed rooftop bar and kitchen with a 60-foot swimming pool on its deck, and three public eateries including spots for pizza, burgers, and chicken. The fifth floor will house a drawing room, a pantry bar, and the Club Bar & House Kitchen Grill. On the ground floor, the Public Cowshed Relax spa and salon will offer a retail area and five treatment rooms as well as mani-pedi chairs, a men's grooming area, and a blow dry bar.

The Renaissance Chicago North Shore Hotel recently underwent a $7.5 million renovation. The overhaul included the addition of a new restaurant, Pancetta, and tweaks to all of the existing meeting and event spaces such as new carpeting, wall coverings, lighting fixtures, and dimming systems as well as new room dividers in the ballrooms. The Northbrook ballroom, pictured here, holds 500 guests in a theater-style setting and 250 in a classroom-style setup. The room can also hold conferences for 80.

Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago unveiled a new board room in January. Formed by combining two smaller spaces, the new room measures 618 square feet and offers views of the Chicago River, Lake Michigan, and downtown architecture. The space has a mahogany table inlaid with Zebra wood and 20 Corinthian leather executive chairs. Twenty electrical outlets are built into the table to accommodate laptops. There are also data-projector jacks that hook up to an 80-inch flat-panel monitor for presentations or video conferencing. A dedicated boardroom attaché handles last-minute requests.

The Wit Hotel's rooftop bar, aptly named Roof, underwent large-scale renovations in April. The 27th-floor spot now has a glass retractable roof, an elaborate LED light system, a new DJ booth, and a six-by-twelve- foot outdoor display monitor. Equipped to run videos, DVDs and Power Point presentations, the 7,000-square-foot venue has indoor and outdoor areas that can each hold 150 guests. The menu specializes in small plates, and a pizza oven cooks up pies in the main bar area.

The Westin Michigan Avenue completed renovations on its 38,000 square feet of flexible meeting and event spaces in March. The $7 million undertaking added new colors, fabrics, and textures to each of the spaces, and brought in green features such as energy-efficient lighting. Fatpipe, a bandwidth management network tool that helps the hotel's IT connectivity, was installed, and insulation was upgraded to make the meeting spaces more soundproof. The largest meeting room is the 7,833-square-foot Great Lakes grand ballroom, which can seat 910 theater-style or seat 96 at a boardroom table.

The Chicago Marriott Naperville reopened this spring after a transformation that involved gutting the entire building. The venue has a total of 21 meeting rooms, the largest of which is the 7,031-square-foot Grand ballroom, which can seat 800. The Naper ballroom is 4,005 square feet and has floor-to-ceiling windows; it can seat 455 theater-style or hold conferences for 80. Audiovisual packages are available, and hotel staff can prepare buffets or plated meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and receptions. Meeting break menus include the Low Carb, with fruit kabobs and beef jerky, and the decidedly more indulgent Ice Cream Social and Retro Candy breaks.

Billed as the only full-service resort on the shores of Lake Geneva, the Abbey Resort hosts corporate retreats as well as teambuilding and incentive programs. In February, the property partnered with recreational brand Brunswick to add $20,000 worth of gaming equipment and furnishings to its conference suite. With a 25-guest capacity, the suite now holds poker and billiards tables and shuffleboard equipment; it also has a 42-inch LCD TV. For post-meeting entertainment, the venue can organize group regattas and has an on-site sports bar, as well as access to several golf courses.

Open since the early spring, Hotel Lincoln is a new Joie de Vivre property in—you guessed it—Lincoln Park. Overlooking the park's grassy, tree-lined expanse, the Clark meeting room on the second floor can hold 70 in a theater-style configuration; it can also host conferences for 30, hold 40 in a classroom-style setting, or seat 20 at a U-shape table. On the same floor, the Grant hospitality suite has a kitchen and lounge furniture, and adjoins to a deluxe King guestroom. Chef Paul Virant, who heads the lobby-level Perennial Virant restaurant, creates seasonal menus for the hotel's meetings and events, and can whip up everything from breakfast pastries to sandwiches with house-pickled ingredients.