Tod R. Chambers, the general manager of the Roosevelt Hotel, addresses the crowd at the ceremony lighting the hotel sign on Wednesday. The hotel, which had been a Fairmont, has been closed since Hurricane Katrina. (Richard White/NYT Institute)

About 100 people danced to the Rebirth Brass Band and sipped Champagne at a street party on Baronne Street on Wednesday to celebrate the lighting of the newly restored Roosevelt Hotel, home to the famous Blue Room and Sazerac Bar.

The hotel, built in 1893 as the Grunewald, became the Roosevelt in 1923, a name it kept until 1965. Most recently it was the Fairmont. It will reopen officially on June 25, after being shuttered since Hurricane Katrina. Owned by Dimension Development District and managed through the Hilton Hotel Corp., the 500-room facility is being restored as a Waldorf Astoria Collection hotel, with average room rates at $200.

The lighting of the sign on the side of the building symbolizes the return of the historic landmark, according to Mark Wilson, hotel director of sales and marketing. A lighted sign says “the Roosevelt is returning,” Wilson said. “The Roosevelt brings something back to the community.”

The Roosevelt Hotel sign is back on the side of the historic building after a lighting ceremony Wednesday. The hotel was renovated and renamed from the Fairmont after Hurricane Katrina. (Richard White/NYT Institute)

Wilson said the reopening of the hotel has provided 300 construction jobs and will create 400 additional jobs. The hotel also will bring in conventioneers who will have an economic effect on shops, restaurants, cabdrivers, airlines and stores, Wilson said. Some of the jobs are being provided to residents through Goodwill Industries of Southeast Louisiana, which helps find jobs for people with disabilities, economic disadvantages and other barriers.

Wilson said the hotel has booked conventions for 2009, 2010 and 2011. Weddings and other social events also have been booked, he said.

Wilson said the return of the hotel as the Roosevelt is important because it reconnects many local residents to the essence of New Orleans and takes them back to a time before Hurricane Katrina.

“The historical significance of keeping the name reflects our desire to embrace the historical legacy of our famous hotel,” Wilson said. “Our legendary property has always been part of our social scene in New Orleans as home to the Blue Room and great entertainment such as the Sazerac Bar and the magical angel hair Christmas lobby. ”

Yvette Parr, 66, a New Orleans native, offered her memories of the Roosevelt.

“I saw Ella Fitzgerald, Sonny and Cher,” Parr said. “My daddy used to bring me here to the Blue Room when I was a little girl.”

Morris Molaison, 67, of New Orleans, said the hotel has been missed by many local people in the community, including himself.

“I came here in my late teenage years to see different guests like Tony Bennett, Frankie Laine and Jimmy Durante,” he said. “All in all, it was a fun place, and it will still be a fun place.”

Kurt M. Weigle, the president and CEO of the Downtown Development District, said the hotel’s reopening generates more than just an economic stimulus for the New Orleans area; it also generates confidence.

“The number of guests that will be coming in and out of the hotel will attract Canal Street businesses, but the symbolic significance is also important,” Weigle said. “People that invested in the hotel are world players in the investment community, and when people see that they invested in New Orleans, it says something.”

Lighting the sign brought back memories for Jay Power, another New Orleans native.

“It makes me feel like a great institution has not been forgotten,” he said. “This is a place where people ate lunch and gathered together. It’s a place that people want to stay for nostalgic purposes.”

“The Roosevelt is back in all of its glory,” Wilson said.