(Rendering provided by Julien Properties) This rendering shows the front of the Franklin Square Inn after planned renovations under its new owner, Pacific Coast Properties, a subsidiary of Julien Properties.

HOUGHTON — The renovated Franklin Square Inn will be a boon to the area, its soon-to-be owners said Tuesday.

Julien Properties announced Tuesday it is purchasing the hotel from U.P. Hotel Group, Inc. The hotel will be affiliated with Hampton Inn by Hilton after a series of exterior and interior renovations.

Jonathan Julien said owner Gary Lubinski’s willingness to sell was the biggest factor in the purchase.

“We’ve been trying to pursue a larger franchise hotel on the market for six years, and we just needed the best location,” he said after Tuesday’s Houghton Planning Commission meeting.

Renovations will add 13 net rooms, bringing the total to 117, according to materials submitted for the site plan review Tuesday. Parking for the new rooms will also be added.

The Houghton Planning Commission approved the site plan Tuesday. Lubinski, who is on the commission, abstained from the vote.

Asked about rumors of a sales last week, Lubinski said only that the property had not been sold. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Modifications include changing the front of the building to remove the fitness center and porte-crochere for vehicles, which will be replaced with one that better facilitates traffic flow.

The fitness center will be moved elsewhere on the first floor, which will also include a relocated pool in a now-unused space in the northwest corner of the building.

To create a more open-concept feel, the lobby will be two stories high and stretch to the north side of the building, which will include a patio overlooking the Portage Canal.

Perhaps the biggest changes will be on the seventh floor, where the banquet and restaurant areas will be converted into hotel rooms. The new suites will have floor-to-ceiling windows. The seventh-floor bar will stay, and will be remodeled.

Julien said it was a matter of both making the project financially viable and bringing the hotel into line with Hilton guidelines. While exploring the scope of work needed for the conversion to a Hilton hotel, they found the plumbing protrusions and the effects the seventh floor had on the sixth floor would not be allowable under Hilton’s standards, Julien said.

“That would have made it economically infeasible to acquire the property and put the type of investment into the renovations it’s going to need to bring it to the standard of Hilton,” he said.

Julien said they had been working with Hilton for the past five years on site selection.

“They’re just happy to come to the market,” he said. “It’ll be the first upper mid-scale franchised hotel in the market, so we’re excited to be able to bring that to travelers. Right now, there’s only midscale and economy scale hotel, so it’ll be a great additional option.”

Julien said the renovated hotel will set a good tone for people’s experience of downtown.

“I think that’ll be a refreshing change for people coming into downtown and that being the first major building they see,” Julien said.

Renovations will begin this spring, with the hotel being opened as a Hilton hotel sometime in 2021. The hotel will remain open during construction, including the bar, restaurant and event space. Julien said they will work with Julie Cortright, owner of the Bonfire Bar and Grill, to carry out the current bookings and transfer her business to a new location. Cortright will reach out to any people whose events are affected by the construction, Julien said.

“We’ve completely turned our construction schedule on its head to try to allow for her to operate for as long as possible, because we don’t want to affect people’s events,” he said. “If we are going to affect somebody’s event, we want to give them the most amount of time possible to make changes to their plans.”