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Photo: Tom Colburn / Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close Image 2 of 9 Workmen on the 30-story Holiday Inn going up in the 800 block of Calhoun between Travis and Milam have no difficulty making themselves heard above the roar of traffic. If shouting doesn't work, the men exchange information by means of two-way radio. April 1971. less Workmen on the 30-story Holiday Inn going up in the 800 block of Calhoun between Travis and Milam have no difficulty making themselves heard above the roar of traffic. If shouting doesn't work, the men ... more Photo: Sam C. Pierson Jr. / Houston Chronicle Image 3 of 9 Topping out ceremonies were held this past week for the Holiday Inn-Downtown, Travis at Calhoun. Opening date for the 607-room facility, the largest Holiday Inn in the continental United States, is Jan. 6, 1972. less Topping out ceremonies were held this past week for the Holiday Inn-Downtown, Travis at Calhoun. Opening date for the 607-room facility, the largest Holiday Inn in the continental United States, is Jan. 6, ... more Photo: Bob Bailey Photography Image 4 of 9 Construction is nearing completion on the 30-story Holiday Inns of America hotel at 801 Calhoun in downtown Houston. The 607-room hotel and parking garage building is on the north side of Calhoun between Travis and Milam streets. Being built at an estimated cost of about $12 million, the hotel facility is scheduled to be ready for an opening in January, 1972. The five-level parking garage below the main hotel building will provide for 420 cars. A swimming pool will be on the sixth level of the building. The facility will also provide for space for a restaurant, lounge, boutique and meeting rooms. less Construction is nearing completion on the 30-story Holiday Inns of America hotel at 801 Calhoun in downtown Houston. The 607-room hotel and parking garage building is on the north side of Calhoun between ... more Photo: Curtis McGee / Houston Chronicle Image 5 of 9 Image 6 of 9 The 30-story Holiday Inn hotel at 801 Calhoun in downtown Houston opens Thursday, Jan. 6 1972. The 607-room hotel and parking garage building is on the north side of Calhoun between Travis and Milam streets. The 30-story Holiday Inn hotel at 801 Calhoun in downtown Houston opens Thursday, Jan. 6 1972. The 607-room hotel and parking garage building is on the north side of Calhoun between Travis and Milam streets. Photo: Dome City Photographers Image 7 of 9 The former Days Inn hotel at 801 St Joseph's Parkway , Oct. 29, 2004. The former Days Inn hotel at 801 St Joseph's Parkway , Oct. 29, 2004. Photo: James Nielsen / Houston Chronicle Image 8 of 9 Graffiti windows and chipped paint is all that's left of the old Days Inn on 801 St. Joseph Parkway. May 6, 2011 Graffiti windows and chipped paint is all that's left of the old Days Inn on 801 St. Joseph Parkway. May 6, 2011 Photo: Mayra Beltran / Houston Chronicle Image 9 of 9 Downtown's 'Heaven on Earth': The old Holiday Inn 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

You’ve seen it a million times from the Pierce Elevated. And as the years go by, it just looks a little more derelict.

I’m talking about the former Holiday Inn-turned Days Inn-turned Heaven on Earth Inn at 801 St. Joseph Parkway on the south side of downtown.

Last month, the Chronicle reported that a group of private investors recently purchased the site with plans to redevelop the building into a hotel or residences.

You’ve probably heard that story before.

In 2008, an investment group operating as New Era Hospitality purchased the vacant building and planned to develop it into an upscale hotel. Three years later, New Era filed for bankruptcy to avoid having the property fall to foreclosure.

From that article:

New Era Hospitality is the third group over the years to try to do something with the property, said commercial real estate broker David Cook of Cushman & Wakefield. “All of them have come up short, ” he said. “I personally don’t think the building has any long-term value. Everyone gets into it thinking they can do something and then determine it’s really too difficult or expensive to remodel. You’re better off starting with a fresh piece of dirt out there rather than having to deal with the challenges of that building.”

It’s a sad commentary on a building that — when it opened — was the largest Holiday Inn in the continental United States with more than 600 rooms. Only the 643-room Holiday Inn on Waikiki Beach was larger.

When it opened in early 1972, an official with the Holiday Inn emphasized the hotel’s location, which, according to the Chronicle, was “snug in the midst of Houston’s business motion.”

The hotel played up Houston’s connection with the space industry. The main dining room was named the Orbit Restaurant. Ceiling fixtures resembled rockets blasting off into space and the walls were adorned with color photos from the Apollo missions.

The hotel’s Checkered Flag Lounge was a nod to Houston racing and A.J. Foyt. Each room even came with a color TV.

Times would change, though. In early 1990 the hotel became a Days Inn. Three years later it was purchased by a group led by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the former spiritual adviser to the Beatles. Renamed the Heaven on Earth Inn, plans included using part of the hotel as a Transcendental Meditation school.

As the Chronicle’s Jerry Urban and Ralph Bivins reported in 1993:

Built in the 1970s, the hotel had fallen on hard times in recent years. “It was in rather tough condition as a result of fairly extensive default and litigation between the borrower, which was a Texas limited partnership, and the First National Bank of Chicago, ” Sullivan said. The hotel, developed by the Mariner Corp. at first opened as a Holiday Inn, said hotel consultant John Keeling of PKF Consulting. The hotel is located on the south side of downtown, surrounded by parking lots. “It’s not near anything,” said Keeling, who characterized the hotel site as a “poor location.” The hotel developers expected to attract business from Exxon, which has offices two blocks to the north. But Exxon clients have stayed away in recent years. “Exxon people don’t stay in it because it’s in poor condition, ” Keeling said. Half of the rooms in the hotel have been closed off in recent years because it was not economically feasible to operate them, Keeling said.

A little more than a year later, the money-hemorrhaging hotel and its vegetarian restaurant closed. The hotel was renamed Maharishi Vedic School. At the time the Chronicle reported the 332-room hotel averaged a paltry 20 percent occupancy rate with rates ranging from $40 to $80 nightly.

By 1997 it was called the Houston Downtown Plaza Hotel. It would run afoul of city fire and building codes and was soon vacated.

As the Chronicle’s John Makeig reported at the time:

As originally planned, the Houston Downtown Plaza was to have been a place for health-conscious travelers, but that idea didn’t work out, in part because of the facility’s condition. “There was a lot of neglect and design problems we weren’t aware of when we got it, ” said Russell Hebert, co-director of the Vedic University. In recent years, the hotel has become home to low-income downtown workers and welfare recipients.

These days the hotel continues to sit mostly gutted and unoccupied, except for the brave urban explorers who make their way in every now and then. Time will tell if this latest revitalization effort will breathe new life into the old Holiday Inn.