New owners of the Clarion Hotel say the major remodeling now underway will convert it to the city's premier hotel by year's end.

Mitch Patel, president and CEO of Chattanooga-based Vision Hospitality Group, said, "It will be a beautiful hotel when we are done with it. It will be the best hotel in the city of Chattanooga - very modern, contemporary, boutiquish."

Vision acquired the former Sheraton on Chestnut near Fourth for $7 million and the group is sinking another $10 million into the conversion into an upscale Doubletree by Hilton.

"We're excited about the turnaround. We'll have a hotel with state-of-the-art amenities," Mr. Patel said.

He said one plus for the hotel is that it is located so close to the riverfront. "Being the only full-service hotel in that part of town is an advantage," he said.

Mr. Patel hired Whitney Fisher of the W Group, who also designed the interior for the Broadmore Hotel in Colorado as well as the Hershey Lodge in Pennsylvania. He said, "From Day 1, we told her to go all out. This will be a new hotel with a new image. We are taking it back to the day when it was one of the city's premier hotels."

He added, "We challenged the designer to be different - to be tastefully different. We wanted to create something like you would find in a metropolitan area."

Mr. Patel said travelers in an earlier day "used to want conformity. But today they are looking for something different. They want an experience when they travel. They want to be pleasantly surprised."

Bill Mish, the hotel's general manager, said the new look will include vessel sinks, unique three-pane glass bathroom doors and flat-screen TVs. He said they will be "wide" TVs. "We are going beyond what Hilton requires in a lot of areas."

The specially-designed furniture will all be made in the U.S. Some has already arrived for display in three model rooms. Beds will feature the finest in linens, comforters and down pillows.

The top three floors of the hotel have been gutted. The 20 rooms that were on each floor will be widened to six "Presidential Suites" per floor. Each will have a dramatic view of downtown Chattanooga.

The kitchen, restaurant, ballroom and meeting rooms will also be redone.

The entrance will be moved from the side of the hotel to front on Chestnut Street. The current swimming pool will be taken out and replaced by a three-story glass atrium. A new indoor pool will be erected in the basement area as well as a day spa and an "enormous" fitness center.

The "new" hotel will include a full-service restaurant.

Mr. Mish said the check-in area will change. The Doubletree will have several pods in the spacious lobby for individual checkout. Or guests can do it themselves at a kiosk.

Mr. Mish said the Clarion is down to around 40 employees, but will ramp up to around 126 when it is officially a Doubletree.

Construction is by the local Richard Worley firm.

The hotel will go from 201 rooms to 187. There will be 20 luxury suites.

"People are just going to be blown away when they see the changes at this hotel," Mr. Mish said.