Staybridge Suites announced for west side

[joeDowntown]

8 hours ago, GRLaker said:

That isn't a really attractive area of the river. It's wide, straight, and contains walls on both sides. There's nothing natural looking about it. Downtown is the view most would want, but you can get that view with either layout. 

Regardless of what part of the river it’s on, I think the city (and developers) should learn from the past and not turn their backs to the river. I think GRDad’s drawing shows how they could easily make it face the river (and still have some frontage on Front Street). 

[demhem]

Has anyone else noticed that the Staybridge building placement is essentially a mirror image of the Woda building? 

[GRDadof3]

On 2/15/2018 at 8:57 AM, demhem said:

Has anyone else noticed that the Staybridge building placement is essentially a mirror image of the Woda building? 

Yes, I did, after playing around with its placement. 

[GRDadof3]

Does anyone think this project is going to go in? Or heard anything? There's about 850 hotel rooms being built right now downtown (if you include Hinman's). 

Nothing in permits or on the city of GR's development site. 

Just curious..

[RiversideGR]

Looks like this project might be seeing some movement....they applied for a parking variance yesterday.

The proposed special land use request is for a reduction in the parking spaces provided for a proposed Staybridge hotel located at 942 Front Street NW. The hotel will operate 24-hours a day, 7 days a week, and will include 111 guest rooms. The hotel will include a restaurant which is only available to hotel guests and will not be open to the public. The hotel will also include a roof-top patio area, again only available to hotel guests. Per the City of Grand Rapids zoning ordinance, section 5.10.04, the required parking spaces for a 111-room hotel is 83 spaces. The current site plan includes 37 parking spaces located on site with another 7 on-street spaces located immediately adjacent to the site on Front Avenue for a total of 44 spaces. Also per section 5.10.04 of the zoning ordinance, reductions in the amount of on-site parking can be made up to 50% can be made contingent upon satisfying at least one of the allowable reductions of the section. Included in this application is a parking demand study, prepared by Interstate Traffic Engineering, LLC, which investigates in greater depth the provided parking and the allowable reductions. Each of the reduction criteria is described and how the proposed site plan and site use will utilize each reduction option. By way of this special land use request, we are formally requesting approval of the site plan as provided with a total of 44 on site and on street parking spaces and including a reduction of 39 parking spaces.

[walker]

2 hours ago, RiversideGR said:

Looks like this project might be seeing some movement....they applied for a parking variance yesterday.

The proposed special land use request is for a reduction in the parking spaces provided for a proposed Staybridge hotel located at 942 Front Street NW. The hotel will operate 24-hours a day, 7 days a week, and will include 111 guest rooms. The hotel will include a restaurant which is only available to hotel guests and will not be open to the public. The hotel will also include a roof-top patio area, again only available to hotel guests. Per the City of Grand Rapids zoning ordinance, section 5.10.04, the required parking spaces for a 111-room hotel is 83 spaces. The current site plan includes 37 parking spaces located on site with another 7 on-street spaces located immediately adjacent to the site on Front Avenue for a total of 44 spaces. Also per section 5.10.04 of the zoning ordinance, reductions in the amount of on-site parking can be made up to 50% can be made contingent upon satisfying at least one of the allowable reductions of the section. Included in this application is a parking demand study, prepared by Interstate Traffic Engineering, LLC, which investigates in greater depth the provided parking and the allowable reductions. Each of the reduction criteria is described and how the proposed site plan and site use will utilize each reduction option. By way of this special land use request, we are formally requesting approval of the site plan as provided with a total of 44 on site and on street parking spaces and including a reduction of 39 parking spaces.

It would be interesting to see the parking study and see how they justify having less than at least one parking  space per room.  This is not at all in the center of downtown where you might not need a car to get around.  If I was staying at an extended stay hotel at this location, I'd sure want to be able to be sure to have a spot to park my car so I wouldn't be isolated on Front Street away from just about everything.    

[cstonesparty]

2 hours ago, walker said:

It would be interesting to see the parking study and see how they justify having less than at least one parking  space per room.  This is not at all in the center of downtown where you might not need a car to get around.  If I was staying at an extended stay hotel at this location, I'd sure want to be able to be sure to have a spot to park my car so I wouldn't be isolated on Front Street away from just about everything.    

online reviews will excoriate a hotel with not enough parking and depress occupancy 

[GR_Urbanist]

At some point we do need to move away from these hotels including 28th street sized parking lots, but even with fewer spots, it's still horribly isolated, with absolutely nothing endearing around it, so people are just forced to drive just to even by some Tylenol.

I'm glad these guys are willing to take a hit on parking lot spaces, but that area needs some serious momentum if we arent going to end up with people giving the city a bad reputation as being insanely unfriendly to travelers without a car.

 

[cstonesparty]

15 hours ago, GR_Urbanist said:

At some point we do need to move away from these hotels including 28th street sized parking lots, but even with fewer spots, it's still horribly isolated, with absolutely nothing endearing around it, so people are just forced to drive just to even by some Tylenol.

I'm glad these guys are willing to take a hit on parking lot spaces, but that area needs some serious momentum if we arent going to end up with people giving the city a bad reputation as being insanely unfriendly to travelers without a car.

 

There is a range of options in the downtown area where a traveler without a car would be well served.  The reputational issue of being unfriendly to people WITH a car is a larger risk since MOST of the population has one...

[mgreven]

When I see this topic that says "West Side" I keep wondering why no one has proposed a hotel on Bridge Street.  Seems like a pretty great place to stay just outside of the core with shuttles right to the convention center.  I know Rockford owns a lot of stuff...seems like fire station land would be perfect or something smaller on the Chase Bank vacant building/land.  It would be a pretty cool addition to that street.

[Prankster]

1 hour ago, mgreven said:

When I see this topic that says "West Side" I keep wondering why no one has proposed a hotel on Bridge Street.  Seems like a pretty great place to stay just outside of the core with shuttles right to the convention center.  I know Rockford owns a lot of stuff...seems like fire station land would be perfect or something smaller on the Chase Bank vacant building/land.  It would be a pretty cool addition to that street.

I agree 100%. I have often thought that something like Hotel Distil in Louisville, except built around beer instead of bourbon, and maybe not quite as many rooms. 

[Jonesey]

On 2/16/2023 at 6:58 PM, GR_Urbanist said:

At some point we do need to move away from these hotels including 28th street sized parking lots, but even with fewer spots, it's still horribly isolated, with absolutely nothing endearing around it, so people are just forced to drive just to even by some Tylenol.

I'm glad these guys are willing to take a hit on parking lot spaces, but that area needs some serious momentum if we arent going to end up with people giving the city a bad reputation as being insanely unfriendly to travelers without a car.

 

You gotta start somewhere!  It's only about a five minute walk to NoMo.  The area is pretty industrial currently, but it 10 years I could really see it taking off.  This, the renovation of the older building and the possible 10 story residential building on the north end will definitely help.

[joeDowntown]

1 hour ago, Jonesey said:

You gotta start somewhere!  It's only about a five minute walk to NoMo.  The area is pretty industrial currently, but it 10 years I could really see it taking off.  This, the renovation of the older building and the possible 10 story residential building on the north end will definitely help.

I agree. And I’m hoping they understand their market better than we do (drivers vs travelers that will ride share). I just hope they flipped the design a bit. I remember the parking lot sitting close to the river, which seems like a waste, and the city should frown  upon it with the upcoming river restoration. 

[walker]

On 2/16/2023 at 11:48 AM, walker said:

It would be interesting to see the parking study and see how they justify having less than at least one parking  space per room.  This is not at all in the center of downtown where you might not need a car to get around.  If I was staying at an extended stay hotel at this location, I'd sure want to be able to be sure to have a spot to park my car so I wouldn't be isolated on Front Street away from just about everything.    

 

7 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

. . . And I’m hoping they understand their market better than we do (drivers vs travelers that will ride share). 

I did not mean to sound as negative as it appears I did.  I completely agree with Joe that they may have their reasons to believe they do not need an abundance of parking.  That's why I wrote that it would be  interesting to see what their parking study says (although for proprietary reasons they may not specifically say.)  I've noticed years ago when I traveled more extensively on business, that these extended stay hotels were often tucked away in not apparently convenient locations because they were located to cater to some specific very local clientele, for example: a nearby corporate training center or housing for (usually foreign) contract workers.  I have not a clue if that's the case here or who the mystery clients, if any, might be.     

Edited February 18, 2023 by walker
to fix typo

[joeDowntown]

I didn’t think it was negative, just thinking that they (or the corporate umbrella of staybridge) probably understands the mix. It could be quite a sad and lonely walk, but wonder if they’re hoping to get travelers working/visiting the at the Corewell building going up?

[joeDowntown]

I was looking at the planning commission packet, and it looks like they did change the project / moved a lot of the rooms to sit on the riverfront (if you look back through the thread, it was originally an L shape with the parking sitting along the river). Glad to see it sit along the river!

Joe
 

 

[RiversideGR]

2 hours ago, joeDowntown said:

I was looking at the planning commission packet, and it looks like they did change the project / moved a lot of the rooms to sit on the riverfront (if you look back through the thread, it was originally an L shape with the parking sitting along the river). Glad to see it sit along the river!

Joe
 

 

This design also has nice street frontage too. I like that the layout conceals the parking lot.