nothin Bank Tower To Become 4-Star Hotel | New Haven Independent

Bank Tower To Become 4‑Star Hotel

DSCN6637.JPGThis 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.”

tonyb.JPGAccording 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.

parklot.JPGBialecki 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.

DSCN6650.JPG“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.

205church.JPGKozlowski 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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