Hotel LaSalle, Hammond

A Downtown Building Waiting For A Use

The former Hotel LaSalle has remained recognizable in downtown Hammond even as vacancy removed it from daily civic life. Its survival preserves the scale and enclosure of the downtown street, but an empty building cannot supply the residents, businesses, and activity needed to sustain that setting.

That tension makes the hotel a useful research subject: it is both an architectural survivor and a test of whether a smaller industrial city's historic core can absorb new investment without replacing its inherited fabric.

The 2026 Reuse Plan

In April 2026, Hammond announced that Moynihan Capital plans to invest $4 million in the property. The proposal calls for 28 one- and two-bedroom apartments, at least two commercial tenants, and a ground-floor restaurant space.

The developer anticipates completing the work in less than 18 months from the start of construction. That timeline should be treated as a project target and monitored through permits, construction activity, tenant announcements, and occupancy.

What The Project Could Add Downtown

A successful rehabilitation would do more than rescue a vacant building. Apartments would add round-the-clock population, while storefronts could reconnect the structure to the sidewalk and to nearby civic and transit investments.

The most useful long-term question is whether the project becomes an isolated success or part of a connected downtown pattern in which older buildings, new housing, public space, and the South Shore station reinforce one another.