NYE at South Bend’s Aloft Hotel

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Over 200 people spent their New Year’s Eve at a party at the new Aloft Hotel in downtown South Bend.

The hotel transformed the old Chase Tower when it opened in September.

Sunday’s New Year’s Eve event was held on the sixth floor in a new entertaining space that was unveiled earlier in December.

Partygoers enjoyed a dinner, music by the band ‘Attention Deficit,’ and a champagne toast at midnight overlooking downtown South Bend.

You had the option to just come for dinner for $75, or stay for the night (a room for two) and get dinner and the champagne toast for $193.

“I just think it’s going to bring the downtown a little bit more life,” said Morgan Brzezinski, the hotel’s sales and catering manager. “Already, downtown’s growing. Already it’s – you’re seeing a lot of changes. And having this big building, which is obviously a center point for downtown…this building’s been empty for many years and it was a hotel at one point. Now we’ve brought this new, sassy, fresh hotel here. And we’re really excited to hopefully bring that here and bring people here to see it, and just bring people in from out of South Bend.”

The party started at 8 p.m. and went until 1 a.m. on New Year’s Day.

Brzezinski credited the turnout for the event to advertising on Facebook and on the radio station U93, which partnered with Aloft to host the party.