Virgin's first hotel to open this week

After years of development and preparation, Virgin’s first hotel in downtown Chicago is set to open this Thursday.

The 26-storey, 250-room property, the first in the company’s new chain of hotels, will welcome its first guests on Jan. 15, after the original fall 2014 opening date was pushed back.

Virgin, which launched its hotel concept in 2010, plans to open a second U.S. hotel in New York in 2016, with future plans for properties in Dallas, Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, Washington DC, London and Paris.