Location is as important as the brand when building a hotel.
And sometimes a location has to be readapted to fit a developer”™s vision.
Starwood Hotels”™ conversion of a former railroad depot in the downtown Dallas business district into a 193-room hotel for its luxury Aloft brand has proven to be a winning combination.
Closer to home, William A. Meyer and Anthony “A.J.” Rotonde are revitalizing a strip of Main Street in downtown White Plains into the mixed-use Metropolitan Plaza project, which will include a 130-room, six-floor Cambria Suites business hotel at the site of a former A&P supermarket.
“We presently own two hotels that surround the White Plains market, the Marriott in Stamford and the Holiday Inn Mount Kisco, and we kept seeing the White Plains marketplace, after the recession, was coming back,” said Meyer, chairman of Meyer Jabara Hotels in Danbury, Conn., which will manage the property through a joint venture with Maryland-based franchise Choice Hotels International Inc.
White Plains marks Cambria”™s third hotel development deal in New York state.
Construction on the hotel, estimated at $25 million, is set to begin in March. The total mixed-use Metropolitan Plaza development has a price tag floated in the $47 million range, which includes retail and hospitality components.
“It”™s today”™s version of a full-service hotel,” said Brad LeBlanc, vice president of upscale franchise development for Choice Hotels International”™s Cambria Suites and Ascend brands. “We”™re targeting Generation X and Generation Y. At the end of the day, baby boomers are retiring”¦ you”™re building a hotel for tomorrow, not for today. You have to look forward and roll the dice.”
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Site selection
For Meyer Jabara, securing a hotel deal relied on the right mix of financing and brand potential.
“Choice Hotels implemented a very aggressive equity transaction approach, making money available to developers in select markets if they”™d be willing to put up Cambria Suites,” Meyer said. “They were willing to participate with guarantees to fund the construction loan ”¦ those two ingredients ”“ no other national hotel company was bringing to the table in 2011. Not only is the Cambria Suites physical brand very appealing to the customer, but it”™s not a widely distributed brand. If you build a product the customer likes, they”™ll try even a relatively unknown brand.”
Developer Robert P. Weisz, president of RPW Group Inc. in Rye Brook, said the climate for hotel construction relies not so much on the capital as it does the right partnerships and customer base.
Weisz”™s plans for an extended-stay hotel at the 1133 Westchester Ave. office park, adjacent to the Maple Moor Golf Course, came to a halt three years ago.
“We”™re definitely still considering it, but because of the downturn, we”™re waiting for the right time,” he said. “We think Westchester is a fertile area for new hotels. We”™ll be building it and owning it, but we need an operator ”¦ we”™re in the third year of a very drastic downturn, but I”™m pretty optimistic that in 24 to 36 months, you should see some positive movement.”
Weisz cited multiple highway access, heavy density of corporate headquarters and the nearby county airport as key selling points.
Farther south, there is talk of a hotel coming to the former hospital building at Cross County Shopping Center in Yonkers; Meyer said his company negotiated for a year-and-a-half to build a hotel there, but plans did not pan out.
“The great thing about mixed-use with retail, a big benefit at Cross County, is parking availability,” he said. “Access was phenomenal, it”™s an enormously successful retail center ”¦ but they couldn”™t pull the trigger.”
Liz Pollack, spokeswoman for Macerich Co., Cross County property managers, declined comment on leasing and development activity, but did say that the team is continuing to look for uses for the old office tower.
Yonkers Mayor Phil Amicone recently said the Cross County was talking to a “major (hotel) brand” for that site.
Changing times
LeBlanc helped launch Cambria Suites in 2005 to accommodate shifting demographics and lifestyles.
“Reflect,” a casual dining and gathering area, will sell everything from wine to grab-and-go sandwiches and will house a barista bar branded with magnets such as Cheesecake Factory and Wolfgang Puck. There will be a swimming pool, hot tub and health club at “Refresh,” and a 24-hour convenience store called “Refill” will offer around-the-clock items.
“Our goal for Cambria is the top 50 cities in the top 50 urban markets in the country,” LeBlanc said. “One of the natural suburban markets off of (New York) city was White Plains. It has a huge traveling base, a nice residential component to it ”¦ it had everything we were looking for.”
Choice Hotels International”™s two other New York development deals for Cambria Suites include 30 W. 46th St. in Times Square and 123-125 W. 28th St. in Chelsea.
The White Plains hotel is scheduled to open September 2013 when Meyer expects the retail portion to be 100 percent leased.
“We signed a lease with Chipotle (Mexican Grill) and Planet Fitness and are negotiating two other leases now,” he said of the row of retail renovations offset by a buzzing Anthony”™s Coal Fired Pizza shop.
Hotel guests can park in a planned underground garage. It will fit 130 cars with overflow to the adjacent City Center garage, which will be connected to approximately 35,000 square feet of retail space.
The Metropolitan Plaza project replaces defunct plans for a Pinnacle high-rise condominium development planned there by Ridgemour-Meyer Properties and Ginsburg Development Cos. Legal disputes resulted in Ridgemour filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2008 with a $5.7 million settlement claim to Ginsburg Development to tie up any loose ends.
“I wasn”™t in the condo business, so once we extricated ourselves from that mess, we followed by examining White Plains hotel trends,” Meyer said. “They became very positive in 2010.”
