Portman Closes on $540 million in Financing to Develop Cincinnati Downtown Marriott Hotel

CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 24, 2026--

National developer Portman, in partnership with the City of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, the State of Ohio, Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC), The Port of Greater Cincinnati and Visit Cincy, today announced it has closed on $540 million in financing to develop the Cincinnati Downtown Marriott hotel. The official groundbreaking for the hotel is planned for Tuesday, July 21 at 10 a.m.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260624269785/en/

The new, full-service hotel will anchor the city’s reimagined Convention District, bringing 700 rooms, 60,000 square feet of meeting space, a 17,000-square-foot events terrace and upscale amenities to serve the needs of group, business and leisure travelers. Connected to the newly renovated First Financial Center via skybridge, the hotel will also include multiple ballrooms and ground-floor retail.

“This milestone is the result of the vision and collaborative effort from the City of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, the Port of Greater Cincinnati, and the State of Ohio to advance the transformation of the Convention Center District," said Ambrish Baisiwala, Chairman and CEO of Portman. "We are also pleased to continue our longstanding relationship with Marriott on a project that represents one of the largest and most significant hotel developments in the region and will help support downtown Cincinnati’s continued growth.”

The Cincinnati Downtown Marriott is a critical component of Cincinnati’s $828 million Convention District Revitalization Plan, which included $264 million in renovations to the First Financial Center, enhancements to surrounding public spaces and improvements to Elm Street Plaza. The nearby 780-space Convention Center Garage, acquired by 3CDC in 2023, has undergone a $28 million project encompassing both acquisition and renovation to support convention activity, hotel guests and downtown visitors. Together, these investments are designed to elevate Cincinnati’s ability to attract national conventions, trade shows and major events.

“​​The upcoming Cincinnati Downtown Marriott Hotel groundbreaking represents a major milestone in the continued transformation of downtown Cincinnati,” said Katie Westbrook, Executive Vice President of Development at 3CDC. “This project will not only strengthen the city’s ability to attract large-scale events, but also enhance the overall visitor experience, supporting local businesses and driving long-term economic growth in the urban core. We’re looking forward to seeing the energy and momentum it will bring to the Convention District and the city as a whole.”

The project is being delivered through a public-private partnership supported by the City of Cincinnati, Hamilton County (OH) and the State of Ohio, alongside private investment from Aimbridge Hospitality, which serves as manager and equity partner. In addition to the signed agreement with Marriott, Portman’s project partners include 3CDC, The Port and Visit Cincy. Financing for the development includes support from Bank OZK as senior lender, Huntington National Bank as bridge lender, Piper Sandler Hospitality Finance Group, which served as placement agent and senior manager for the financing of the project, and DiPerna & Company as financial advisor. Design and construction are being led by Cooper Carry as architect, Moody Nolan as local architect and Skanska as construction manager.

“We’re excited to be an equity partner in this transformative project alongside such a strong coalition of public and private partners in a city that continues to demonstrate real momentum,” said Eric Jacobs, Chief Global Growth Officer, Aimbridge Hospitality. “The Cincinnati Downtown Marriott will serve as an anchor for a thriving convention center district, and we look forward to leveraging our track record of operational excellence to unlock the hotel’s full potential.”

The project financing is supported by approximately $249 million in public support, including a $50 million state capital grant, a $112 million public bond issuance relying primarily on tax increment financing, a $50 million loan from the City and $37 million in proceeds from a state tax credit award.

“This hotel is a massive milestone in our collective reimaging of Cincinnati’s Downtown,” said Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval. “Local government and businesses are making groundbreaking investments across the Convention District to build the kind of urban fabric that attracts residents and guests from across the world. This catalytic project is a foundational part of getting us to our future.”

Commission President Stephanie Summerow Dumas said, “‘Build it, and they will come.’ We have built a state-of-the-art convention center, and now visitors need a state-of-the-art place to stay. It took every partner working together to assemble the financing and move the Convention District forward. Today, we celebrate an investment that will support tourism, conventions, jobs and economic growth throughout our region.”

Portman’s continued investment in downtown Cincinnati reflects the firm’s long-term commitment to the market. The new Marriott hotel will complement Portman’s existing hospitality holdings in the city, including the recently acquired Westin Cincinnati, where the firm plans to launch a comprehensive renovation later this year. Across its hospitality portfolio, Portman owns and asset manages eight hotels in five major U.S. markets, representing more than 4,000 rooms and approximately $1.5 billion in hospitality assets under management.

To learn more about Portman, visit portmanholdings.com.

About Portman

Portman Holdings, LLC is a national real estate investment, development and management firm with a 70-year history spanning five decades and three continents. Founded by famed architect and developer John C. Portman, Jr., who originated the concept of the architect as developer and created a global legacy of large-scale mixed-use developments, the firm is led today by Chairman and CEO Ambrish Baisiwala and President John Portman IV. Portman’s expertise spans office, hospitality, residential, industrial, retail, multifamily and mixed-use development throughout the United States.

Portman is widely recognized as a leading developer and investor in full-service hotels and pursues growth through both ground-up development and value-add acquisitions. The firm currently has approximately $1.5 billion of hospitality assets under management comprising eight hotels and more than 4,000 rooms across five major U.S. markets. The hospitality portfolio includes the Hyatt Regency Salt Lake City, the Westin Charlotte, the InterContinental San Diego Bayfront, the Residence Inn / Springhill Suites San Diego Bayfront, the Indigo Atlanta Downtown, the Kimpton Sylvan Buckhead, the Westin Cincinnati and the Westin Peachtree Plaza.

Portman has developed or owned more than 20 hotels totaling approximately 18,000 keys including the Hyatt Regency Atlanta — where the firm pioneered the multi-story atrium hotel concept that became an industry standard — the Atlanta and New York Marriott Marquis properties, the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, the Hilton San Diego Bayfront and the Portman Ritz-Carlton Shanghai. The firm has a long history working with leading global hotel brands, including Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton and IHG.

About 3CDC:

The Cincinnati Center City Development Corp. (3CDC) is a private, non-profit full-service real estate developer with a mission and strategic focus to strengthen the core assets of Downtown Cincinnati in partnership with the City of Cincinnati and the Cincinnati corporate community. Its work is specifically focused on revitalizing and connecting the Central Business District and Over-the-Rhine. For more information, visit http://www.3cdc.org.

About Aimbridge Hospitality:

Aimbridge Hospitality is the world’s leading global hospitality management company. A trusted operator of over 80 globally recognized lodging brands and distinctive luxury and lifestyle assets, Aimbridge delivers compelling results for hotel owners by leveraging proprietary data and insights as an authority in key markets and destinations, while creating exceptional guest experiences. The Company continually strives to set the new standard in hospitality excellence, leading the industry into the future through a wealth of unmatched resources and best-in-class supplier agreements, while recruiting and developing top industry talent in all key verticals and geographies. To learn more, visit www.aimbridgehospitality.com and connect with Aimbridge on LinkedIn.

About Skanska:

Skanska uses knowledge & foresight to shape the way people live, work and connect. More than 135 years in the making, we’re one of the world’s largest construction and project development companies. With operations in select markets throughout the Nordics, Europe and the United States, global revenue totaled $18.3 billion in 2025. Skanska in the U.S. operates 28 offices across the country, with its headquarters in New York City. In 2025, the U.S. development and construction streams generated $8.7 billion in revenue. Together with our customers and the collective expertise of our 6,500 teammates in the U.S. and 25,900 globally, we create innovative and sustainable solutions that support healthy living beyond our lifetime.

Rendering: Cincinnati Downtown Marriott hotel

A member of the cultlike group known as Zizians has been charged with murder in the shooting of her parents at their Pennsylvania home on her 30th birthday, and a prosecutor said Wednesday she wasn't acting alone.

Delaware County District Attorney Tanner Rouse said evidence from a neighbor’s doorbell camera, ballistics and analysis of cellphone records have left investigators certain Michelle Zajko is at least partly responsible for the deaths of her parents, Rita and Richard. They were shot in her childhood playroom on New Year’s Eve 2022, surrounded by her old dolls and toys.

"At this time we do not know who her co-conspirators were, but we are very certain that Michelle Zajko was in the home and arranged for the death of her parents,” Rouse said.

The new charges against Zajko, who has been jailed in Maryland on other charges since February 2025, include murder, burglary and conspiracy charges in her parents’ deaths. She has denied killing them, and in court filings suggested her father might have killed her mother and himself.

“I didn’t murder my parents,” she wrote in an April 2025 “ Open Letter to the World” that her attorney sent to The Associated Press.

Authorities had long described Zajko as a person of interest.

The two deaths are among six linked to the Zizians, a group of young, highly intelligent computer scientists who appear to share radical beliefs about veganism, animal rights, gender identity and artificial intelligence. Since 2022, members have been tied to the death of one of their own during an attack on a California landlord, the landlord’s subsequent killing, the Zajkos’ deaths in Pennsylvania, and a highway shootout in Vermont that left a border agent and another Zizian dead.

In the Pennsylvania case, investigators spent years painstakingly collecting evidence, Rouse said, including video from a neighbor's doorbell camera that captured two people getting out of a car outside the Zajkos' home in Chester Heights, a voice shouting “Mom!” and another voice exclaiming, “Oh my God! Oh, God, God!”

Authorities haven't found a weapon, but Zajko made a list describing mistakes such as leaving shell casings behind, he said. Those casings matched ammunition from Zajko's home in Vermont and from a firing range in her backyard, Rouse said.

“If she wasn’t the one who actually pulled the trigger, she was certainly aligned with those who did,” he said.

Online court records didn't indicate whether Zajko had an attorney in the Pennsylvania case as of Wednesday. An attorney representing her in Maryland did not respond to a message seeking comment, and the Delaware County Public Defender’s office declined to comment.

Zajko, now 33, also is charged with providing the gun used to kill U.S. Border Patrol Agent David Maland in January 2025, though nothing has happened in that case. She was arrested in Maryland a few weeks later along with Daniel Blank and Jack “Ziz” LaSota, whom authorities describe as the group’s leader. Police who responded to a landowner's complaint about suspicious people parked in box trucks on his property described them as having “ties with the Zizians Cult” and said they would be questioned about crimes across the country.

All three have pleaded not guilty to charges of trespassing and illegal gun and drug possession, while LaSota also has pleaded not guilty to a federal charge of illegal gun possession by a fugitive. A judge recently granted a defense request for a competency evaluation in the federal case.

In court filings, LaSota’s attorneys said their client eschews the term Zizian and denies that she and her friends have formed a cult. Zajko has claimed authorities arrested the group in Maryland to prevent them from exonerating Teresa Youngblut, who has pleaded not guilty to murder in the Vermont shooting and could face the death penalty if convicted.

Zajko was living with Blank in Vermont at the time of her parents’ deaths and was questioned there by police shortly after they died. A few weeks later, officers briefly took her into custody at a hotel while she was in Pennsylvania for the funeral but released her without charges. LaSota, staying at the same hotel, was charged with obstructing the homicide investigation and disorderly conduct. Her attorney at the time has said she is innocent of those charges.

Zajko had been estranged from her parents in the year leading up to their deaths, the prosecutor said. In a January 2022 text message to her father, she complained that her mother had “assumed the worst” about her since she was a child.

“Every time I interact with mom in a nonsuperficial way she spends the time insulting a life she knows nothing about,” Zajko wrote. Hours before her death, Rita Zajko apologized to her daughter and wished her a happy birthday.

“That text went unanswered,” Rouse said.

Richard Zajko's sister-in-law, Roseanne Zajko, thanked police and prosecutors Wednesday, saying that her family has endured “countless days of darkness and despair" waiting for justice.

“We don't know yet if the trial will begin to heal the void in our lives and the ache in our hearts, but we do know that the detectives, the DA's office, and we, the family, have done everything possible to achieve justice for Rick and Rita.”

The prosecutor described their deaths as a crime that “goes beyond comprehension.”

“I can’t wrap my mind around or figure out what led to this point," he said. "We are clearly talking about someone that has gone down an unimaginably dark road and has led to a tragedy that just defies any sort of description.”

Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire.

FILE - This Jan. 29, 2025 photo shows a Chester Heights, Pa., home, the scene of the 2022 killing of Richard and Rita Zajko, (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

FILE - In this combination of undated photos provided by the Pennsylvania State Police, Richard Zajko, left, and his wife Rita Zajko, who police say were shot to death in their home in suburban Philadelphia on Dec. 31, 2022, are shown. (Pennsylvania State Police via AP, File)

FILE - In this image from video, Michelle Zajko, who is associated with a cultlike group known as Zizians that is linked to several deaths across the U.S., is escorted into court for a pretrial hearing on trespassing, gun and drug charges in Cumberland, Md., Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo, File)