AUGUSTA — A 120-room, four-story hotel is proposed for Western Avenue in Augusta amid a cluster of hotels in a busy part of the city.

The hotel would be built at 377 Western Ave. on a lot visible from Interstate 95. The 11-acre site was cleared of most trees in recent years and is made up of five combined lots.

Auburn developer George Schott, who would co-own the 25,580-square-foot hotel with Florida-based Ocean Properties, said it would target customers staying for more than a week at a time.

Planning Board documents list the hotel as a Homewood Suites, which is a brand of Hilton Worldwide. The $12 million project, which needs a conditional use variance because of its height, goes before the board on Nov. 12.

Schott owns a similar extended-stay hotel in Auburn that he says is doing well and has started work on another in Bath he anticipates will open next summer.

“It is a product that has done very well,” Schott said. “We wanted to do one more and thought Augusta would be a good place to do so.”

It would join a cluster of hotels in that area, including a relatively new Hampton Inn, a Super 8 motel, a Motel 6 and the Senator Inn.

Schott, who owns the Auburn Mall and other commercial properties in Maine and hundreds of units of former base housing around the former Brunswick Naval Air Station, said his company researched the demand and determined “the need and numbers are there.”

Peter Thompson, president and CEO of the Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce, said taxable lodging sales have been on the rise in Augusta, which could be an indication the demand for hotel rooms is likewise on the rise.

In 2009, the Augusta area brought in about $12 million in taxable sales in lodging, he said. By 2012, that had increased to $15 million and in 2013 to $16.7 million.

“From 2012 to 2013, that’s an 11 percent increase, which could reflect that once-empty rooms are now filled, or it could reflect a growing demand,” Thompson said. “My guess is (Schott) has determined it is worth the investment, and he sees there is a growing demand. Sometimes demand follows the supply.”

Documents filed with the Planning Board say the hotel would be between 48 and 54 feet tall. Hotels are a permitted use in that zoning district, but because the building is higher than the 42 feet allowed in the district, it would require a variance or conditional use approval from the board.

Schott said if the project is approved, construction would start as soon as possible in the spring, and the hotel would open a year later.

Thompson said the hotel “sounds like an interesting piece of new development for the community and a recognition that the community is growing.”

The property would have parking for up to 137 vehicles, with parking along the south and west sides of the building.

It would be landscaped to provide a buffer between it and two homes on either side of the site, according to application materials filed for the developer by James Coffin, of Augusta-based E.S. Coffin Engineering and Surveying. The rest of that area of Western Avenue is largely commercial.

Thompson speculated that potential customers for the extended-stay hotel could include state legislators when they are in session in Augusta. He said the new MaineGeneral hospital and ongoing construction projects including natural gas pipelines and Central Maine Power Co.’s electrical grid upgrade could also provide lodgers likely to stay for extended periods of time.

Schott said all the units would have kitchenettes and other amenities meant to make longer-term guests feel more at home.

In addition to Planning Board approval, the project also needs a stormwater management permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Copy the Story Link