Weekly Briefing

Sinclair Digital | Hotel Marcel: Historic Transformation into Digital Showcase

Listen to this article

The IBcon Smart Building Best Practice Showcase is an annual event held at the Realcomm | IBcon conference where real estate leaders present their most innovative, technology driven commercial and corporate real estate projects. These projects demonstrate leading-edge technologies and vision for intelligent and adaptive design that is transforming the next generation of IT-enabled real estate. The Weekly News Briefing will feature a unique Showcase project each week.

The historic Pirelli building in Connecticut has been transformed into a boutique hotel and a showcase for digital technology in the hospitality industry. Hotel Marcel is the first Passive House and net zero hotel in North America. Owner and developer Bruce Becker’s goal was to preserve the original design while offering modern amenities and meeting the highest sustainability standards. "Our goal for Hotel Marcel is to harness the best, most cost-effective technology to minimize energy use and enhance guest comfort," he said. “We are also committed to minimizing adverse environmental impacts by not using any fossil fuels. We have created a renewable energy microgrid which is conceived to produce all electricity on site using over 1,000 solar panels and over 1 MWH of battery storage."

Realcomm Staff Realcomm Conference Group LLC is the leading research and educational institution that produces annual conferences and expositions on technology, automated business solutions and intelligent buildings strategies for executives in commercial, corporate, government and institutional real estate. Realcomm was founded in 1999 with the goal of bringing industry leaders together each year to discuss, demonstrate and debate the latest innovations that impact the industry.

Read Next

5/15/2025
Tech, Talent and Transformation: 2025 Digie Finalists Announced For 27 years, Realcomm has presented the Digie Awards to acknowledge companies, real estate projects, technologies, and individuals that have advanced the commercial real estate industry through the strategic use of technology, automation, and innovation.

5/15/2025
Empowering Space Management with Data-Driven Visualization For effective CRE space management, it’s critical to centralize lease data, maximize rental square footage (RSF), improve energy efficiency and reconfigure spaces to meet changing needs.

5/8/2025
The AI-Powered Workplace Evolution: Redefining the Business Landscape In today's rapidly evolving business environment, the fusion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Workplace Management is revolutionizing the way organizations approach workspace optimization and operational efficiency.

3/27/2025
The Convergence of Edge Computing, Cloud, and AI in Building Automation and Smart Buildings In the built environment, we have seen the convergence of Operational Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT), later expanding to include Workplace Technologies (WP).