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Capewell Hotel Plan Moves Ahead


HartfordTycoon

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It looks like something will finally be built on the Capewell site. This is an important step in fully integrating this area with Downtown and extending development south of Downtown. If the first Hotel does well, which I think it will, then a second will follow. This should also help make the condo plan next door appear more viable to funding sources as well and adds another hotel within walking distance of the Convention Center and Front Street. Great news!

Long-stalled plans to build a hotel on land near the Connecticut Convention Center are moving again, as the developer has a new partner, a probable lender, and, as of this week, at least $2.5 million in state funding to get the 130-room hotel built.

Courant Capewell Hotel Article

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It looks like something will finally be built on the Capewell site. This is an important step in fully integrating this area with Downtown and extending development south of Downtown. If the first Hotel does well, which I think it will, then a second will follow. This should also help make the condo plan next door appear more viable to funding sources as well and adds another hotel within walking distance of the Convention Center and Front Street. Great news!

Long-stalled plans to build a hotel on land near the Connecticut Convention Center are moving again, as the developer has a new partner, a probable lender, and, as of this week, at least $2.5 million in state funding to get the 130-room hotel built.

Courant Capewell Hotel Article

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This is great news, but I wonder how this project will be designed and how it will fit its downtown environment. Do a search for "Candlewood Suites" and they all look exactly the same regardless of what city they are in. They are an ugly V shaped building with surface parking out front. Its not a very urban looking building at all. The city should use this opportunity to rethink the whole disjointed area between Charter Oak and downtown and make a master plan for development to follow over the next decade to restore this neighborhood to its urban past (here's an idea - have Ken Greenberg actually EARN his quarter of a million dollars). After all, if you want people walking from these proposed hotels to the Convention Center, it should be a pedestrian friendly walk.... not a stroll past surface parking lots, closed streets and office park style buildings.

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This is great news, but I wonder how this project will be designed and how it will fit its downtown environment. Do a search for "Candlewood Suites" and they all look exactly the same regardless of what city they are in. They are an ugly V shaped building with surface parking out front. Its not a very urban looking building at all. The city should use this opportunity to rethink the whole disjointed area between Charter Oak and downtown and make a master plan for development to follow over the next decade to restore this neighborhood to its urban past (here's an idea - have Ken Greenberg actually EARN his quarter of a million dollars). After all, if you want people walking from these proposed hotels to the Convention Center, it should be a pedestrian friendly walk.... not a stroll past surface parking lots, closed streets and office park style buildings.
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This is great news, but I wonder how this project will be designed and how it will fit its downtown environment. Do a search for "Candlewood Suites" and they all look exactly the same regardless of what city they are in. They are an ugly V shaped building with surface parking out front. Its not a very urban looking building at all. The city should use this opportunity to rethink the whole disjointed area between Charter Oak and downtown and make a master plan for development to follow over the next decade to restore this neighborhood to its urban past (here's an idea - have Ken Greenberg actually EARN his quarter of a million dollars). After all, if you want people walking from these proposed hotels to the Convention Center, it should be a pedestrian friendly walk.... not a stroll past surface parking lots, closed streets and office park style buildings.
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This project HAS great potential but time will tell if it takes advantage of it. This project will be happening in an area that can be recreated and connected to the rest of downtown. It is near Colt Gateway, the Capewell site, the revitilized Dutch Point Complex and Charter Oak Terrace. If this hotel is built correctly it will add more to this area and help reconnect it with downtown. If it is not built right it will not do much and will resemble the Super 8 on Weston Street and the hotels in the South Meadows area.

Also the fact that money was instead given to this project as opposed to Colt Gateway or Michael Grunberg (BOA Tower) is a little dishearting. Colt Gateway also has lots of potential and I couldnt be happier that there is a company renovating one of the most famous factories in this country. Also Michael Grunberg is a major investor in Hartford and we need to make sure that residential plans for the BOA tower are kept on track...and while we are at it we need to make sure Bank of America stays downtown and maybe even adds more employees downtown

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How large is the property on which the hotel is to be built? that could tell whether this will be a vertical building or a suburban style motel. 130 rooms and 380 parking spaces? i can't imagine this would be a surface parking lot. well i guess i can. i would be shocked though. it would be a great misuse of land.
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If a suburban style motel is built in downtown Hartford, it will further my suspicions that this city can't get anything done right. Those hotels are absolutely awful looking. Other cities have design review boards to avoid these kinds of mistakes. Of course we don't have one...

There is a real opportunity here to extend the footprint of downtown out to the Charter Oak area. How hard would it be for the city to come up with a plan to best develop this area in a smart, planned out way that makes sense for a growing downtown? If that hotel is built like we see in the picture above, it would be a sin.

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This may not be ideal, but it is new construction downtown which we badly need.

Conventioneers do not want to stay at the Hilton Garden in Glastonbury or the Courtyard in Manchester. We need more hotel rooms downtown.

Also...look who is getting the deal done: CCEDA, a Rowland/Rell creation.

If it weren't for the State Capitol, Hartford would get nothing built.

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I'm not saying to not allow the developers to move forward with this project. But the city needs to set some rules for smart development for the long term well being of the city. Developers shouldn't be allowed to build whatever they want however they want - especially when public money is involved.
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It looks like something will finally be built on the Capewell site. This is an important step in fully integrating this area with Downtown and extending development south of Downtown. If the first Hotel does well, which I think it will, then a second will follow. This should also help make the condo plan next door appear more viable to funding sources as well and adds another hotel within walkind distance of the Convention Center and Front Street. Great news!

Long-stalled plans to build a hotel on land near the Connecticut Convention Center are moving again, as the developer has a new partner, a probable lender, and, as of this week, at least $2.5 million in state funding to get the 130-room hotel built.

Courant Capewell Hotel Article

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WTF!!!

They are going to raize the CAPEWELL BUILDING to put up a CANDLEWOOD SUITES??? Why not use the building there and build something like the Goodwin -- and call it 'THE CAPEWELL' I think it would great if they would build a hotel, but NOT with a typical chain hotel in the suburbs. I'd build a 120 room hotel with a indoor spa/pool. Of course, the nieghborhood is not the best for a 'GOODWIN' style hotel.

JimS

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