12 Worcester Business Journal • March 17, 2014 www.wbjournal.com
focus
Meetings Guide & Golf Direc tory
ROOM FOR MORE
More hotels for Worcester, Marlborough and Westborough
will increase available meeting space for businesses
W
hen the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Worcester's Lincoln Square
was shuttered in 2010 after the former owner defaulted on
debt payments, it left a void.
Without a four-star hotel offering a full-range of services
to business travelers, area companies have been forced to look beyond
downtown for lodging for their clients and employees.
So when a developer proposed two new hotels for downtown Worcester
in December — a four-star, Renaissance by Marriott in CitySquare and a
Hampton Inn down the street at Gateway Park — city leaders were eager
to make it work.
By emily micucci
Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer
The Worcester City Council unanimously approved
tax increment finance (TIF) deals for the project,
which will cost an estimated $38 million, in a show of
support. This will defray the tax burden on Colwen
Management, based in Portsmouth N.H., as it opens
the new hotels.
Developer: No hesitation on plans
The Hampton Inn, which will feature 100 rooms,
will open first, according to Mark Stebbens, partner at
Colwen, with constructed slated to begin in June. A
site plan has been filed with the city planning office,
but plans for the Renaissance aren't expected to be
filed until late summer or early fall, according to
Stebbens, with construction on the 158-room hotel
set to begin in the spring of 2015.
"There's no hesitation in our mind that it's going to
move forward," Stebbens said.
Still, Stebbens said the demand for four-star rooms
in Worcester isn't quite as high as he'd like to see it. But
he believes that as development efforts at CitySquare
continue to take hold in the next couple of years, and
as the economy improves, the demand will be there
when the Renaissance is scheduled to open in 2016.
Specifically, the city is building a two-story, under-
ground parking garage behind the Unum Group and
Saint Vincent Cancer & Wellness Center buildings in
CitySquare. The hotel would be built over the garage,
Stebbens said.
>> Continued On Page 25
Blackstone Valley Golf Club, Sutton
P H O T O s / C O U R T E s Y
