Micro-room with a view
Developer pitches hotel planfor slice of Theatre District
By Greg Turner | Saturday, January 14, 2012 |
http://www.bostonherald.com | Real Estate
A Hub developer is sizing up a sliver of land in the Theatre District to build Boston’s first hotel featuring micro-rooms where guests can bunk down with just enough space for a bed.
Abbott Development has pitched a 16-story, 200-room hotel to the Boston Redevelopment Authority, dropping a long-delayed condo project but sticking with a flashy Times Square-like video billboard for the “gateway” corner of Tremont and Stuart streets.
The hotel’s moderately priced rooms will likely measure no more than 200 square feet — a significant downsizing from typical Boston lodging — and be modeled after small but stylish “pod” hotels that have popped up in New York, London and other big cities.
“It’s a successful business model in other cities and it does allow you to put more rooms ... on the site,” said Abbott principal James McAuliffe. “It makes it more financially viable.”
Abbott won city approval in 2006 to build housing over a restaurant, but the 14-story project stalled during the Great Recession. Last year the developer lined up an assisted-living facility, but the BRA deemed it “inappropriate” for the area, McAuliffe said.
Now the hotel concept is catching on. “They haven’t officially signed off on it but they responded favorably,” McAuliffe said of the BRA.
At Thursday night’s board meeting, the BRA gave Abbott an eighth extension on its development rights to the 5,800-square-foot site. The city’s effort to enliven the eyesore of a corner, which once housed a flimsy trailer selling theater tickets, stretches back to the late 1990s.
“The project could be under way as early as late fall, early winter of this year,” Bud Shadrawy, an attorney for co-developer Amherst Media Investors of New Jersey, told the BRA.
Shadrawy noted the idea comes on the heels of a Menino administration push for super-small and more affordable apartments in rental projects on the South Boston waterfront.
Patrick Moscaritolo, CEO of the Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau, said “small” rooms at Hub hotels typically measure around 275 square feet, while “executive king” rooms size up at 350 or so.
“This (project) will be breaking new ground because now the moderate price is driven by downsizing the room, although I’m sure some would argue the trade-off is worth it,” he said.
Rates at the Pod Hotel in New York City go as low as $89 for a bunk-bed setup, up to $169 for a queen. That compares to $200 to $500 a night for rooms elsewhere.
Christopher Muller, dean of Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration, said Boston is attractive to micro-room hotel operators but there are few places as economically accommodating as the Theatre District parcel.
“It’s a great spot for it,” Muller said. “It’s very trendy and it appeals to people who have creative aspects who aren’t interested in doing anything but sleeping in these.”
Article URL:
http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1395749
