New Haven Independent

Bank Tower To Become 4-Star Hotel

by Leonard J. Honeyman | December 8, 2009 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)

This iconic building at Church and Elm streets, once the domain of lawyers and bankers, will soon host travelers and revelers, a city official said Tuesday.

Deputy Director of Economic Development Tony Bialecki told the regular meeting of the Development Commission that the hotel plans will be presented to city regulators in a month or so. Construction is scheduled to start in the summer with occupancy anticipated in mid-2011, he said.

One piece of the puzzle still to be determined is the name over the door of the four-star hotel. The developer, New York-based Hampshire Hotels & Resorts, did not immediately return phone calls seeking more details.

At least one city development commissioner, downtown Alderwoman Frances “Bitsie” Clark, said she loves the idea of the four-star hotel. But she called one part of the plan, locating parking for guests and event attendees a few blocks away, “a crazy idea.”

According to Bialecki (pictured), the hotel would comprise about 150 rooms, four restaurants, about 20,000 feet of event space and some retail stores. The developers spent about $7 million gutting the inside and renovating the outside, which had been a victim of time and salt.

Wachovia Bank would continue to occupy much of the first floor. The hotel entrance would be on the left side of the building on Church Street, with the full lobby on the second floor, Bialecki said.

Parking

The plan originally had been to use the lot east of the building on Elm Street for parking. That has changed. In an interview earlier this year, Kevin Lillis, vice president of real estate development for Hampshire, had said he anticipated parking in the adjacent lot or even building a garage there.

Bialecki said the city used $2 million in state money to purchase the parking lot at State and Wall streets (pictured) from AT&T and is looking at building a garage with 600 to 800 spaces. It would be from six to eight stories. Parking engineers are working on plans, he said.

Reserving 700 spaces at the Temple Street Garage for cars belonging to students and faculty at the Gateway Community College would have overtaxed that garage, he said.

“About 200 people who work in this area park at the Temple Street Garage,” Bialecki told the commissioners.

“When you go to a hotel, you want to park your car there and not walk,” Clark responded about the new lot plan.

“Let’s think about people coming to this hotel for a dance, let’s say, or party at night for a dinner. They have to park over [at State and Wall], they have to walk the length of Wall, they have to walk the length of Orange down to Elm and walk over to Church to get to the hotel. There is nobody on those streets,” she said.

“I am a lone woman of which there are numbers in New Haven, and I go to events at night, and when [I go] to the Omni, I park at the Temple Street Garage.

“I live on Audubon. I probably would not walk to this hotel at night. … It’s the loneliest, loneliest street. There is nobody between City Hall and Grove Street to walk home at night on Church Street,” Clark said.

The Market

Theresa Goldsmith, director of sales and marketing at the 306-room Omni Hotel at Yale, argued that there is not enough business for a new hotel unless economic conditions change.

“If you look at the city occupancy, it speaks for itself,” she said. Citywide hotel occupancy is between 50 and 60 percent, she said.

“Competition is a positive for the city. Or they can bring in additional business, then it is warranted,” she said.

Virginia Kozlowski, head of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the economy is looking up in the city. She said she’s “confident that when this space is ready, there will be a totally different economy by then.”

Even now, “there are dates we cannot accommodate business because of the lack of capacity,” Kozowski said.

Kozlowski cited potential new demand for high-end meetings and conferences connected with the new Smilow Cancer Center at Yale and the decision by Covidien Medical Devices to move about 400 executive and other jobs from North Haven and other locations to 120,000 square feet of offices at 555 Long Wharf Dr. in New Haven.

Kozlowski said the new hotel would add to the 820 rooms that already exist downtown. The 20,000 square feet of event space would nearly double the 25,000 square feet that exist at the Omni.

“We could bid on citywide events,” she said. “It’s only a walk across the Green between 205 Church and the Omni.”

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Comments

Posted by: The Count | December 8, 2009 2:19 PM

Uh, Mr. Bialecki? How are they gonna GET here with this great "agreement" Mayor DeStefano concluded with East Haven mayor Almon over Tweed-New Haven Airport? Oh, wait! That's right: They'll take the train down from Bradley!

Posted by: HighOnNH | December 8, 2009 3:25 PM

I hope the city (and state) are working to lure some more businesses to new haven. Smilow of course was an awesome addition to the city, and so is covidien, but it would be great for NH to add one or two more large employers. Especially considering all the high end housing/hotels that are going up. This hotel looks like an asset for that corner of town but if its effect is only to run the Omni or the NH Hotel out of business it will be a net bad result for the city.

New Haven is a great small city and appears to be getting even better, but it is also fragile. A couple more large employers would ensure that the housing/hotels remain full, there are enough jobs, enough people to support the restaurants/retail, enough people walking around at night that people feel safe, etc.

Posted by: Lisa | December 8, 2009 3:31 PM

Until the city figures out a realistic and workable parking plan, this venture is a pipe dream. Lack of parking is why just about everything in this city that isn't connected with Yale ends up being a failure.

Posted by: LevelHeadedAndObjective | December 8, 2009 4:41 PM

Great work Tony Bialecki and great for New Haven. What a fabulous piece of new business. New Haven continues to attract despite the worst econominc downturn in many years. Construction jobs, real good wage providers, Grow New Haven Grow!

Posted by: robn | December 8, 2009 4:42 PM

Gutsy move in this economy...I hope this is a sign that things are looking up in the minds of businesspeople who function in the real economy...(unlike bankers and hedge fund managers).

This city can take a 17% increase in hotel rooms....especially since more than half of the existing stock is terrible.

Love it how the building owners have been experimenting with nighttime tower top lighting. Its a spirit that hasn't been seen here in a long time.

Posted by: streever | December 8, 2009 4:47 PM

Lisa this city has a glut of parking.

If you build parking lots you get cars. If you require people to walk or to take mass transit you get more people on the street.

I don't think the distance is daunting. People have to walk up a nice side-street (Wall) to Church? They'll see some New Haven buildings & businesses and possibly be more inclined to spend some money here.

We need to move away from sheltering people with immediate parking & instant gratification for their driving habits. If the hotel can market itself effectively & find customers, it will do alright.

Posted by: Pedro | December 8, 2009 4:58 PM

Lisa, this isn't some city project. This is a private developer who is making a bet on the city. They are doing this on their own. It was they who took a fully occupied building, kicked everyone out and decided to undertake a $7 million (and counting) renovation of the building.

I'm ambivilant about the parking garage (I don't want State Street to continue being the parking lot of new haven), but am VERY excited for this project. That area downtown needs more bodies and people to help it become more vibrant, and hotel is just the ticket.

Posted by: jdavis | December 8, 2009 5:29 PM

I am also very excited to hear this news. I hope it works out.

I also want to say I enjoy looking at the new lighting on top of the building. I am fortunate enough to have a city skyline view from my apartment, and this adds life and excitement to the city at night. Feels like something is going on downtown [even when we all know there isnt]. Great addition!

Posted by: Norton Street | December 8, 2009 5:33 PM

Growth is an obsolete word that has been overused and stripped of pretty much all meaning; it would benefit us to stop using it when referring to economic endeavors. 'Growth' has become synonyms with outward growth, or sprawl, which is bad and while it creates jobs in the short term and fills pockets of developers, it costs much more in the long run for the people who have to support the 'growth'.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d3/Petrol_use_urban_density.svg
here's a pleasant way for people to access growth:
http://www.texasfreeway.com/ElPaso/photos/lp375/images/lp375_looking_e_from_us54_31-may-2001_hres.jpg
man, i love me some growth:
http://www.kmzlinks.com/files/CircularHousing.jpg
mmmmm mmm that's delicious.

Consolidation is a better approach for municipalities to adopt. There are an enormous amount of resources in New Haven County, unfortunately individual small towns are fighting with each other over jobs, stores, services, everything, which is bad for the county. A regional approach to governing is much smarter.
http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/pad/new_graphics/townaerial2.gif
Boulevard in Paris:
http://hugeasscity.com/images/Champs_Elysees.jpg
New Haven's version of how to get people from suburbs to the city for pay checks, then back home to spend it in there:
http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/uploads/rt34-ariel.bmp

Posted by: juli | December 8, 2009 7:37 PM

jdavis: your snarky comment [as though you spoke for all of us] is confusing because there actually IS a lot going on downtown if you care to find out about it.
furthermore, it is annoying because instead of complaining, you could actually be among a core group of very active and passionate citizens [who love this city] and MAKE something happen...

and, i agree with pedro on being wary of another friggin parking lot on state street. there are, what, THIRTY FIVE parking garages downtown? despite the parking issue, best of luck on the hotel.

Posted by: Ben | December 8, 2009 7:53 PM

I'm ok with there being a parking garage on State Street as long as there is housing or offices above and retail below.

The building lights are great on the building. Maybe the Omni will be forced to light their facade or roof to compete.

Hooray for competition!

Posted by: anon | December 8, 2009 8:56 PM

A hotel here is great, but visitors' perceptions of New Haven won't be very high when they step out of the front door and into one of Downtown's nightmare intersections.

If we can improve the walkability of this area and, in particular, eliminate the 60 mile per hour speeding and traffic weaving taking place on Elm Street at all hours, these visitors will be more likely to come back.

Compare Elm/Church to the streetscaping in front of the Omni, with its mid-block crosswalks and bumpouts, to see the difference.

Within our town and city cores, reversing decades of ongoing 1950s traffic engineering - which is what transformed Elm Street and Church Street from nice tree-lined boulevards into superhighways in the first place - should be a city and statewide economic development priority.

Posted by: robn | December 9, 2009 8:29 AM

ANON,

I walk across that intersection every day and, I think that because of retimed lights...its much more pleasant to cross now than it was last year. Traffic on Elm has gotten much more civil. Now lets see what happens when the bridge to Grand Ave is reopened. If there's an uppeak in accidents it will strongly correlated to the behavior of users of that bridge.

Posted by: Scot | December 9, 2009 10:12 AM

Since the city is building a 6-8 story parking garage at State and Wall, I hope they make the ground floor retail/office/etc, with the parking floors above (could also have some below). That way there would be ample parking, but it would also make the street walkable and give the street/block a good vibe. Helps keep the city walkable and safe.

Posted by: Morris Cove Mom | December 9, 2009 11:09 AM

Why did the city spend $2 million for a parking lot, with state money, no less? A city doesn't owe its residents parking...at least not like this. And they want to build a parking structure on it? When will that happen? Why are all these expensive plans not thoroughly that out first, before money is spent?

Posted by: Steve | December 9, 2009 11:29 AM

The Omni is so-so and the Hotel New Haven is a dump. I fail to see how hypothetically running one of those two hotels out of business in favor of a nicer one is a "net loss" for the city. As others have already said, hooray for competition.

Posted by: HighOnNH | December 10, 2009 10:02 AM

Steve, I agree with your reviews on the omni and NH Hotel. However you dont think that those large buildings being vacant (or taking 2+yrs to convert to a different use) in the heart of downtown would be negative? Dont get me wrong I think the new hotel looks fantastic and I hope all three of them can proper. My point was that a lot of the new development seems to be residential/hotels, I hope the city is also looking for ways to lure new businesses to town so there are people to fill all the new apartments and hotel rooms. I'd love to hear of a new office building going up and say a fortune-500 company (or any provider of high paying jobs)set up shop.

Posted by: robn | December 10, 2009 9:01 PM

a new hotel won't put the Omni out of business, but it maight put the 3 judges out of business and that would be good all around.

Bank Tower To Become 4-Star Hotel

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