Quote:
Originally Posted by Kitchen Guy
I'm sure the conversation went something like this: Hey B/P, instead of building a hotel there, build it over here, next to the Chase center on land we will give you.
|
That's about how I imagined it, too.
Here's an article about Renaissance Center project. This project is like Mike Myers, just won't die.
Developer Adds New Twist to Renaissance Centre
Amended Plan calls for New Hotel Atop Scaled-Down Project
By ADAM TAYLOR
The News Journal
01/20/2006
WILMINGTON -- The developer of a $50 million project intended to help revitalize the heart of downtown has proposed another change to a one-city-block development that has been stalled for years.
Brock J. Vinton of Renaissance Centre LLC told City Council he wants to again use a portion of the proposed development -- bounded by Fourth, Market, Fifth and King streets -- for a hotel.
Vinton has until mid-March to show construction will begin on the Renaissance Centre. If he can't, he will forfeit $2 million of the $2.5 million sale price he paid the city for the one-acre block, said city Economic Development Director Richard V. Pryor. The land would return to the city as well.
Some consider the project key to the redevelopment of the downtown area, helping link the lower North Market Street area with Rodney Square to the north.
The project has changed more than once. In 2000, a hotel and an office were on the drawing board. A year later, the plan called for a 225,000-square-foot office building and a 650-space parking garage, with no hotel. In 2004, the plans were scaled back to a 140,000-square-foot office building and 325-space garage.
Now, Vinton is proposing a hotel on the top half of a building of the same size, about 10 stories, Pryor said. The garage would shrink to 192 spaces.
"The latest proposal would save him money, first and foremost," Pryor said. "I think it's gotten smaller because the marketplace and competition have stolen prospective tenants over time."
Vinton could not be reached for comment.
The request was introduced without discussion at Thursday's City Council meeting. It will be deliberated publicly at a committee meeting next month.
Last year, Vinton asked that the agreement be changed to allow him to knock down all historic buildings on the block. The agreement with the city called for the facades to remain. The city protested and Vinton withdrew the request, Pryor said.
The project has been plagued by problems. Some of the historic structures were damaged by a demolition contractor. And city officials said contractors removed asbestos from the roofs of some of the buildings improperly. Instead of hosing down the tops of the buildings and using tarps and chutes, workers simply used sledgehammers, sending asbestos dust flying into the air.
The project has remained stalled since the summer of 2005. Located directly across King Street from the $137 million New Castle County Courthouse that opened in 2002, the site is now part empty lot and part half-demolished, vacant buildings in disrepair.
Vinton's negotiations with a hotel operator have not been finalized, Pryor said.
He is working to maintain the historic facades with a group called Preservation Initiatives, city Communications Director John Rago said.
Pryor said Vinton doesn't want to gamble on a multimillion-dollar construction loan without some commitments from tenants.
Yet, Pryor remains optimistic. The talks with the hotel firm, which Pryor wouldn't identify, are only three weeks old. "But it's the most hopeful activity I've seen in the last 18 months," he said.
Mayor James M. Baker said the city would move to take back the land and keep the money if signs of imminent construction aren't happening in two months.
"This isn't a phony deadline," he said. "We're giving them every opportunity to break ground, but if they don't, there's no shortage of other developers waiting to take over the site."
----------------------
While more hotel rooms will make the city more attractive for conventions and trade shows, I don't the market is strong enough for two new hotels. Personally, I hope Commonwealth does not succeed and the parcel is taken back and resold to someone else. The city will get $2MM and the money from the resale, and would get a competant
urban developer. Commonwealth just doesn't understand how to market urban properties. If they do somehow pull this off, it is encouraging that Preservation Initiatives is working with them. PI is the same guy who is renovating the buildings at 3rd and Market. He's a guy who knows how to build and market an urban project.