May 18 marks two milestones on the countdown to the Republican National Convention. Two months to the first day of the convention and two weeks until the completion of two major projects Public Square and the new Hilton Downtown Cleveland.
"As we say it's getting real," said Hilton General Manager Teri Agosta. "The time is now."
Crews are busy hanging the artwork and furnishing the rest of the hotel's 600 rooms.
"The furniture is the last thing to come in, we're back in the kitchens cooking which is great and we're going to have some first tastings this week, " said Agosta. "We're training many of our 350 team members."
The hotel will be open for business June 1 with only the roof top bar on the 32nd floor lagging a month behind.
"The curve ball we have is the Cavs so we're going to be extremely busy right out of the blocks so we wanted to make sure we executed that perfectly we know we will and we know there's going to be such interest in the Sky Bar we want to make sure we execute that perfectly and so we're going to do that July 1."
The hotels other bars and restaurant will be opening with the hotel June 1.
A short walk away another major project is eyeing a June 1 deadline, the $37 million overhaul of Public Square. Tuesday found crews in constant motion applying the finishing touches around the Square's new cafe and its water feature that will have fountains in summer and ice skating in winter.
"So much of the trees are coming in and the grass is in and the finishes are coming in and the people are finally starting to say wow like look at what the square is going to be when it's done," said Jeremy Paris of the Group Plan Commission overseeing the project.
"We ran double shifts last summer, we had a winter that was more reasonable," Paris said.
While construction will be completed by June 1 it will likely take a few weeks to remove the concrete barriers and fencing that have surrounded the Square for the better part of the past two years.
"We'll be rolling out our plans for how the square's going to open and be available to the public ahead of the RNC and to sort of just rededicate the square in its new form for the next few generations," Paris said.
