Holiday Inn owners buy historic former daycare in Portland
Lafayette Hotels Buys Historic St. Elizabeth’s Building for $2.5 M, Plans Boutique Conversion
Portland, Maine – In a move that blends historic preservation with hospitality expansion, Lafayette Hotels – the state’s largest hotel operator – closed a $2.5‑million deal for the former St. Elizabeth’s Child Development Center at 87 High Street, right next to its Holiday Inn by the Bay. The purchase marks the first time the property, long owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, will return to active use.
The two‑story brick building, a federal‑style landmark first erected in 1805 by builder Robert Boyle, has been a fixture of Portland’s Old Port for more than two centuries. After a private residence, the diocese bought the property in 1888 to house the Sisters of Mercy’s St. Elizabeth’s Orphan Asylum. In 1968 the orphanage was converted into a child‑development center, a role it kept until the program relocated to a new Catholic Charities facility on Two Lights Road in Cape Elizabeth earlier this year. Since then the high‑rise has stood empty.
Lafayette Hotels plans to repurpose the 13,250‑square‑foot commercial space as a boutique hotel, adding intimate meeting rooms and complementary amenities to the existing Holiday Inn at 88 Spring Street. The Holiday Inn, which hosts 239 rooms, suites and a 1,200‑seat ballroom, would see a new wing of accommodation and a smaller, more flexible event space that could serve the growing Old Port tourist and business markets.
“It’s an abutting property to the hotel, so it made sense,” said Joe Malone, the lead broker who oversaw the transaction. “It was an important transaction for us as a historic property on the downtown peninsula and one that was owned by the diocese.”
Lafayette Hotels, which operates 30 hotels across Maine and New Hampshire—including the Sparhawk Oceanfront Resort in Ogunquit, the Tugboat Inn in Boothbay Harbor and the Senator Inn and Spa in Augusta—has not yet released a timeline for renovations or opening.
The diocese, which held the property for nearly 140 years, said it had no objection to the sale and welcomed the opportunity to see the historic structure revived. The company, however, did not respond to requests for comment at the time of reporting.
The conversion is expected to bring new life to a building that has served as a child‑care center, orphanage, and now a potential hotel, preserving its historic façade while adding a contemporary hospitality function to Portland’s Old Port district.
