June 28–A new hotel under construction in the city's downtown entertainment, restaurant, business and university district has sparked an interesting discussion.
Will it be a boutique hotel or won't it?
That is the question that some people are asking as a Columbus company is preparing to build a 60-room Hampton Inn at 1201 Broadway in a 1930s retail building that was originally constructed as a Montgomery Ward and was most recently an Aaron's Rents.
Reynolds Bickerstaff, a Columbus real estate broker who is chairman of Uptown Columbus, Inc., a non-profit downtown redevelopment organization, has seen the plans put forth by Columbus hotel owner and businessman Jack Pezold.
"Is this a brand question or a size question?" Bickerstaff responded when asked if the new hotel would be classified as boutique.
Both.
There are many definitions for boutique hotels. One of the most accepted is: "A small stylish hotel, typically one situated in a fashionable urban location."
And, by that definition, there is not currently one in Columbus.
"There are boutique hotels all over the country," Pezold Management Chief Operating Officer Tracy Sayers said this week. "When you say boutique hotel, you mean small, custom features and located in a unique part of the city."
The 60-room hotel will be smaller than the Pezold-owned and operated Marriott three blocks to the south and the RAM Hotels-owned Phenix City Courtyard Marriott two blocks up and across the river. It is clearly in a unique part of the city.
And throughout the year-long construction and renovation process, great attention will be paid to detail, Sayers said. The city's Facade Board has already approved the peeling back of the 1980s tan brick to expose the original 1930s red-brick exterior.
Sayers and Newt Aaron, president of Aaron & Clements Inc., the construction management firm hired by Pezold, plan to draw out the unique features of the old retail building and add others as part of a 30,000-square-foot addition off back of the building. One of those is the retail-type entrance from Broadway.
"I think it is a big deal that the building is right on Broadway where you will walk off the street and into the lobby," Aaron said. "And it is right off an active street."
The lobby will also add to the boutique feel, Aaron said.
"There is a mezzanine when you walk in and we plan to use that," Aaron said. "One of the benefits of that building is the mezzanine will offer a nice high ceiling in the lobby."
Details will make all the difference in it being a boutique hotel or just another Hampton property, said Mamie Pound, owner and operator of the Rothschild-Pound House Inn, a Bed and Breakfast on Seventh Street in the city's Historic District.
"Is the Hampton Inn going to be a boutique hotel?" Pound asked. "That is up to them. All of the big chains want to be a boutique and some of them might be close. But travelers are more sophisticated now. They want to stay somewhere unique, and a boutique hotel is a way to do that."
Pound agrees that there is not currently a boutique hotel in Columbus.
"We are the probably the closest thing that a well-heeled traveler would consider boutique," Pound said of the Rothschild-Pound House Inn.
Building a Hampton in the renovated space is expected to cost about $10 million, Sayers said. He estimated that razing the existing building and building from the ground up could have cost about 25 percent less.
"It would have been significantly cheaper," Sayers said of all-new construction. "But it would not have been the right thing to do. … This has been Jack Pezold's vision and what he wants it to do is complement downtown."
Bickerstaff said that working with the existing building and drawing out its unique qualities is good for downtown redevelopment.
"If they came in and just tore down that building and built a hotel, we would not be having this conversation," Bickerstaff said. "The adaptive reuse they are proposing is admirable and desperately needed."
Regardless of what you call it, the addition of 60 new rooms in the heart of downtown is good for business, Pound said.
"This is exciting because it means our customer base is expanding," said Pound, who has owned and operated the bed and breakfast for two decades. "The Marriott has been good for our business. This, too, will be good for all of us."
Bickerstaff makes his own argument as to why the project fits the boutique category.
"What they are proposing and where it is going to be — some of the amenities including a roof-top event space and deck overlooking the city — in Columbus, Ga., that is a boutique hotel," Bickerstaff said. "You won't find that at the Hampton Inn in north Columbus. The brand is important, but the product is boutique."
Chuck Williams: 706-571-8510, @chuckwilliams
