Jul. 24--MOUNT PLEASANT -- Two Planning Commission members objected to a $56 million multi-hotel project next to the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, but a majority of the commission voted Wednesday to approve the project.

It would bring a combined 385 rooms to an area between Patriots Point and the bridge. In May, Town Council approved a 132-room hotel and 25-condominium development nearby at the site of the old Grace Chapel. The commission's 7-2 recommendation for approval of the 385 rooms goes to Town Council next month for consideration.

"I don't think it's compatible with our town, that much hotel space and particularly the height," said Planning Commission member Steve Brock. "Mount Pleasant has a look, and I think 70-plus-foot hotels are not in keeping with Mount Pleasant."

Council recently raised the allowable height of buildings near the bridge to 80 feet for a hospitality district that is part of a larger redevelopment plan.

Commission member Phil Siegrist, who also voted against the project, said he seriously questioned whether the area could support another 300 hotel rooms. "I don't want a 'For Sale' sign on a vacant hotel at the gateway to Mount Pleasant," he said.

Commission member and former Mayor Cheryll Woods-Flowers said that she didn't know if the project was economically feasible but that she supported it because it was consistent with the town's comprehensive plan. "There's no reason not to approve it," she said.

Woods-Flowers said the town averages 70 percent occupancy at its hotels, a higher rate than the rest of the Lowcountry. She said she felt comfortable that the developers would not put that much money on the line for a project that the economy would not support.

The first of the hotels recommended for approval Wednesday -- a six-story, $26 million Marriott SpringHill Suites -- is set to open in the spring 2010. Plans call for 157 guest suites, 5,000 square feet of meeting space and a rooftop bar, said Sam Fowler, founder and managing member of Fowler Hospitality LLC of Columbia.

He said this week that two other proposed hotels with a total of 228 rooms would be housed in an adjacent seven-story building projected for completion in spring 2011. Fowler has not lined up franchise deals for those projects but said he expects the SpringHill Suites would be the most upscale of the three.

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