Ross Hall will be renovated for the new boutique hotel. Photo by Lauren Jindrich.

AIDAN GREGG | MANAGING EDITOR | agregg1@butler.edu 

After two years of disuse, Ross Hall will reopen its doors in the 2026-2027 academic year as a boutique hotel. Following restoration efforts, the university and Hilton plan to break ground on the development of the hotel in spring 2025. 

The hotel — developed in partnership with Hilton’s Curio Collection — will have 105 rooms and suites, a restaurant and meeting spaces. This will be the first Curio Collection hotel in Indiana. The concept of a boutique hotel began to take shape in 2022 as “Bulldog Hotel” which would have been located at the site of the former Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity house.  

While the residence hall officially closed in 2019, it remained in use from 2020 to 2022 as housing for students who contracted COVID-19. In the years prior to the dorm’s closing, various maintenance issues plagued the building, eventually leading to its discontinuation for long-term housing. In 2023, the university announced plans for Ross Hall’s demolition, which will no longer occur. 

The hotel will be developed and operated by Purpose Lodging under the Hilton Curio Collection brand. Purpose Lodging will pay the building cost, while Butler will provide the land. 

University President Jim Danko hopes that renovating Ross Hall for the hotel will increase the university’s prestige and attract students to campus. 

“These are more steps toward becoming a more and more big league school, a quality institution, where you have the types of amenities [like a hotel],” Danko said. “[The goal] with all of these pieces is really to have more action on campus, higher quality things, amenities that make it an attractive University for students.”

The introduction of a hotel to campus is part of the university’s Gateway Project. Among other goals, this project includes proposals for an additional parking structure behind Ross Hall and Sigma Chi, a new house for university presidents and residential housing for juniors, seniors and young alumni. According to the university, the Gateway Project “aims to create a vibrant, interconnected community between Butler University and Midtown Indianapolis.” Butler will utilize a $22.5 million grant to fund a portion of the Gateway Project. 

Danko feels that the presence of the boutique hotel will entice people to come to campus for shows at Clowes Memorial Hall, athletic competitions and other events on campus.

“I look at this as not a low-end University hotel that’s here to accommodate every university need,” Danko said. “I look at it as a hotel that will accommodate broader needs a nicer hotel that will attract certain people here on campus, so it’s more of a nice hotel that’s on a university campus, as opposed to a university hotel intended to service the community.”  

While he acknowledged that it is difficult to approximate rates several years in advance, Danko estimated the cost to stay at the hotel as similar to that of Ironworks and Bottleworks — two Indianapolis hotels. The per-night price for a stay at one of these hotels is usually between $200 and $400 before taxes. The cheapest rooms are just under $200 and the most expensive are over $1,000. 

When the plans for the hotel were announced, some students took to Instagram to share their thoughts with the university. Junior music industry studies and English double major Logan Goettemoeller is one such student who expressed concern about whom exactly the hotel will serve. 

“[The hotel] is encouraging students that have more financial privileges to have their families be able to stay on campus and eat at a fancy restaurant,” Goettemoeller said. “That’s bringing value to campus because they have more money and more affluence — while like someone like me who comes from a small town — I don’t know if my family would be able to afford to stay at this hotel.”

Alumni expressed similar concerns. Owen Madrigal, a 2023 graduate, was one of the last students to live in Ross Hall full-time in 2019. Madrigal acknowledged that Ross Hall had many problems toward the end of its use, but was sad to hear it would be torn down. However, he does not like the idea of the hotel and does not plan to stay there in the future. 

“I couldn’t afford to [stay at the hotel], even if I wanted to,” Madrigal said. “I was part of the final generation of Ross Hall, which is a mark that I bear very proudly, but it’s frustrating to see how little it was cared for until Butler saw the opportunity to make money.”

In addition to the income from visitors to Butler events, the university anticipates some profit from residents at the hotel. However, the hotel must meet a certain profit threshold before the university receives any income. 

Senior accounting major Elizabeth Reed is skeptical of the university’s business model regarding the hotel. 

“Maybe Butler’s doing it for the money of the collaboration, not out of the mindset of, ‘Let’s do something to help give a place for alumni or parents to stay on campus,’ [but rather for] the money that the collaboration will bring to campus.” 

Despite the financial concerns, students were interested in the potential for student employment at the hotel. Senior mathematics and actuarial science double major Eleanor Waiss thinks the hotel will provide job opportunities and income to Butler students. 

“There’s a lack of employment [opportunities] in the area,” Waiss said. “So, I feel that if the Ross Hall hotel can provide that employment option for students, that will be a great boon.” 

University discussions about the hotel have included the possibility for student employment at the hotel and restaurant. 

Further questions have been raised as to whether or not a hotel would be the best use of the Ross Hall site. 

“They’re still having issues with trying to get places on campus, not having some options available to them, [for example] affordable groceries,” Madrigal said. “As that building sat vacant, I have heard at least 20 other better uses for that land than a boutique hotel.”

However, some students were also concerned with the possibility for increased traffic on campus. Waiss said she worries that more visitors to campus and more events will exacerbate existing traffic problems.

“We are in a heavily neighborhooded area and campus as a whole is relatively unaccessible,” Waiss said. “Traffic flow on Clarendon, traffic flow on West Hampton, traffic flow on Sunset, is already pretty bad during events, and I can only see this getting worse if it’s not managed properly.”

Despite the Gateway Project’s goal of increasing campus and community safety, Goettemoeller added that the increase in traffic is a potential safety concern, especially at night and on roads with significant foot traffic. Waiss agreed, saying that inviting more people to campus could present a safety risk. 

Danko wanted to assure students that the hotel will not worsen campus traffic. He said that the university intends to renovate West Hampton Drive before the hotel is finished. This will relocate roadside parking elsewhere, ideally to the proposed new parking structure.

“After [the hotel is] built and all of those cars have gone from Hampton, and the traffic flow is much better than it’s ever had,” Danko said. “I actually expect it to be much safer and a much softer flow through campus.” 

The university will continue to work with the city of Indianapolis to fund the road construction. Additional proposed safety measures include the relocation and expansion of the Butler University Police Department. 

To address overall student concerns with the upcoming hotel project, Danko encouraged students to think of the long-term impact of the renovations. 

“As you elevate your university it increases the value of your degree,” Danko said. “So people might not understand ‘Directly does a hotel help me, I wish they’d build a pizza place or Dunkin’ Donuts.’ What we’re trying to do is elevate the value and the quality of Butler University.” 

Goettemoeller acknowledges the possible benefits for future students and for the value of his degree. However, he feels that this addition will not substantially affect his Butler experience. 

“If I’m applying for a job … maybe they’re gonna be like, ‘Oh yeah, Butler, it’s a nice campus,’” Goettemoeller said. “But as for what this actually adds to my education, when I feel like I’m getting out of my degree, it really adds nothing.”

Ultimately, students cited lack of adequate communication, student input and transparency as the overarching concerns with the hotel announcement. 

“We — the campus community — are just frustrated regarding the communication of this from my perspective,” Waiss said. “It does not seem like student voices were heard at all. This seems like it’s a done deal and there’s nothing we can do about it.” 

The Butler Collegian will continue to investigate and report on this story.