CONWAY — A project that meets the town’s regulations but is just too big for the proposed location. That seems to be the sentiment of planners and residents — and a hotel industry insider — concerning a proposal for a four-story hotel in Intervale.
Full site-plan review of the proposed a 105,836-square-foot, four-story, 105-room hotel to be built at the current site of the 16-room Intervale Motel was continued to Feb. 25 by the Conway Planning Board, which last discussed the project Feb. 11.
More than 30 residents attended that session, voicing displeasure with the size of the Viewpoint Hotel being proposed by developer P.J. Patel. Homeowners in the abutting Mountain View townhouses said it would block their views of the Presidential Range.
The Intervale Motel and the 3.66-acre parcel it sits on were sold to Viewpoint North Conway LLC in December by the John R. Cannell Revocable Trust for $3.4 milliion.
At the Feb. 11 meeting, the planning board voted to require a 50-foot buffer around the hotel and also ordered a traffic study.
Planning board member Earl Sires IV questioned the size of the project, who said a rarely used nuisance mechanism could be invoked to halt it.
Earle Wason, owner of Wason Associates Hospitality Real Estate Brokerage Group of Portsmouth, which specializes in hotel property sales, said Sires might be onto something.
“The idea that this could be a nuisance is something they may play up because this hotel would have lights shining from the parking lot all night long. Maybe that will give the planning board the opportunity to get changes done,” Wason said.
He said the way the business transaction was completed was not how things are usually done in the hotel industry.
“I’m surprised that the hotel group went out on a limb and bought the property before they had the approvals. That is not usually the case,” he said.
Josh McAllister of HEB Engineers, who presented the project at last week’s planning board meeting, said he called the developer following the meeting to inform him of reaction to the plan and the changes that the board is seeking.
Asked if his client would be willing to decrease the number of floors, McAllister declined comment.
But he did say that his engineering team and the ownership group would be meeting virtually this coming Thursday to prepare for the Feb. 25 planning board meeting.
“With the next meeting with the planning board coming up on the 25th, we need to understand as a team what impacts the traffic study and the new 50-foot property buffer (on the east and south side) would have, as the buffer would require some design modification,” McAllister said.
He pointed out that the building as proposed would meet the town’s maximum allowed structure…
Read More: Hotel industry Realtor weighs in on Intervale project | Local Business News