By Tasha Anderson for AZBEX
Developer, The Terrance A Plas Company, recently submitted plans to the City of Phoenix to redevelop an existing medical plaza located at the NWC of McDowell Road and 12th Street, into a new 71.7KSF hotel.
The hotel, to be called The McDowell Hotel according to the project documents, will sit on approximately 1.58 acres adjacent to the Coronado Neighborhood.
“One of the major goals of The McDowell Hotel is to incorporate a comfortable overnight stay/experience within walking distance to Banner Hospital to reduce the need for vehicular trips within the Coronado Residential Neighborhood,” the documents state.
The project proposes an adaptive re-use of the existing vacated medical office building (MOB) into a four-story, 105-room hotel. Ground level will consist of a lobby with guest check-in and food services, as well as some guestrooms. All other levels will consist of guestroom suites.
The building’s design limits windows looking north into the Coronado neighborhood residences. Instead, the developer intends on working with the neighborhood and art community to provide a mural for the north wall.
A 35-foot statue that is currently housed within the building is expected to be preserved during the redevelopment.
Hotel amenities will include a fitness center, lounge area with bar services, pedestrian friendly walkways, internet access, guest shared laundry, and dining and vending services. A pool and patio will be located on the south side of the building to, “minimize any potential for noise that might disturb [Coronado] residents if the pool were on the north side of the building,” according to the documents.
Access to the hotel will be located at the northern end of the site, away from the McDowell Road intersection. Plas’ concept is to redevelop the driveway access along 12th street and reduce the access points to one in order to reduce the amount of traffic for guests and neighborhood residents.
A total of 64 parking spaces will be provided for the hotel. “The north and east sides of the parking lot have existing low landscape walls and an enhanced landscape palette will aid in screening parking from 12th Street and Almeria Road.”
The project still needs to go before the City of Phoenix Planning Commission and City Council for approval.
what’s a MOB?
Hmm…. seems like the design is detrimental to the community, the guests of the hotel, and the investors/owners. Rather than limiting the view to the north, just limit the view ‘down’ so that people can still see out to the mountains. Seems this would be far, far, far better suited as multifamily residential – the demand for hotels is likely not going to return, ever. There is no reason for people to return to offices in most situations, and no reason for people to travel for business or conventions. Take the money spent per worker to put them in an office building plus the money spent per worker for business travel and related expenses and a business can either save around $20-30K per employee per year and be more competitive or spend that money on the employee and their benefits. If a company doesn’t do this, their competition will, and this will make their competition succeed while the ‘old school’ companies go under. Just my two cents, but that’s how I see this playing out.