WOBURN, Mass.
Hilton Boston/Woburn completed a comprehensive $16 million renovation spearheaded by a joint venture between The Davis Companies and The Rubicon Companies. The opening of Matadora, the hotel’s brand-new Spanish tapas restaurant, marks the culmination of the property’s top-to-bottom renovation, which drew inspiration from the area’s historic shoe and leather-making industries.
“We knew this development had immense potential to benefit from our repositioning strategy as one of the city’s few full-service hotels,” said The Davis Companies Founder and CEO Jonathan G. Davis.
The $16 million renovation revitalized the Woburn hotel’s lobby, guest rooms, event and meeting spaces, which pay homage to the town’s legacy of craftmanship that dates back to the 17th Century. Cobblers and cordwainers dominated the city’s industry through the mid-1800s when manufacturing shifted to leathermaking by 1865. In 1885, Woburn became New England’s leading leather producer.
Additionally, it was Woburn’s Henry Thayer who developed chrome tanning in 1901, a process that makes leather water-resistant, more durable, softer and suppler than traditional vegetable tanning.
The 344 newly renovated guest rooms, including two Junior Suites, showcase the city’s industrial character by highlighting elements of fine cobbler shops and tanneries while infusing contemporary touches. Forged metals, lacquered hard goods, embossed leather headboards and 3D wire art all come together to create guest rooms that are modern and inviting, yet connect to Woburn’s history.
Hilton Boston/Woburn’s 18,000 square feet of newly renovated event space offers flexible options for all styles of corporate meetings, social events and weddings with full-service catering from the Matadora team.
Matadora is a modern tapas restaurant created in partnership with COJE Management, the team behind Boston’s social dining spots Yvonne’s, RUKA and Lolita. The menus, which were developed by COJE’s Culinary Director Tom Berry and will be executed by Matadora’s Chef de Cuisine William Jimenez, are focused on tailored tapas and flavorful cuts of meat and fish from the kitchen’s centerpiece—a custom, wood-fired grill. Among the menu highlights are a curated selection of Spanish meats, cheese and olives.
The Grand Ballroom as well as the 13 meeting and function rooms, named after historic Woburn figures, are fitted with modern technologies yet punctuated with vintage design elements. Spaces are accented with pressed-tin ceilings, high-backed winged chairs, industrial-style chandeliers and leather booths.
