Too Much Room At The Inn For More Hotels? | Local hoteliers bristle at proposed project in Shrewsbury
With poor economic conditions curbing business travel and discretionary spending, hotels are definitely hurting as they watch their occupancy rates dwindle.
And locally, hotel owners and managers are wondering how the market is going to absorb a proposed 92-room Holiday Inn in Shrewsbury.
Andrew Surabian of Shrewsbury wants to build a Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites near exit 22 off Interstate 290, according to Shrewsbury officials
Surabian’s project consultant, Robert Crawford of Natick-based Hospitality Resolutions Inc., has told Shrewsbury selectmen that the town is underserved in hotels. While Shrewsbury has only one hotel, a Days Inn on Route 9, other towns of comparable size have many more. Specifically he pointed to Auburn which has four hotels.
Market Saturation
But existing innkeepers in the area wonder how many hotels the Worcester area can support. In Worcester and surrounding communities there are about 25 existing hotels, and more if the circle is widened to include Leominster, Fitchburg and Devens. And in addition to Surabian’s proposal, there’s another Shrewsbury hotel being proposed for Route 9 that has received zoning approvals.
According to statistics compiled by Smith Travel Research, hotels in the Worcester market had an occupancy rate of 55.9 percent in 2008. That’s down 1.9 percent from 2007.
Market Demand
Mark Waxler, general manager of The Beechwood Hotel on Plantation Street in Worcester, just down the road from the Shrewsbury town line, said his anecdotal evidence supported the statistics from STR.
“Occupancy in Worcester is not doing that well right now. No one is coming to this area just to stay at hotels. It’s not a situation of build it and they will come,” Waxler said.
But Waxler said the proposed Shrewsbury hotel would not be a competitor to the Beechwood, at least not directly.
“Someone who stays at the Beechwood Hotel is not going to stay at a Holiday Inn Express, so it’s not going to affect this hotel,” Waxler said. “But if it has an effect on the city itself, by drawing other customers away from Worcester, it will hurt the city’s economy and so hurt the Beechwood in that way.”
In Westborough, the DoubleTree Hotel’s general manager Peter Tziahanas does not see the proposed hotel in Shrewsbury as direct competition because it would be a limited service hotel with few amenities. In comparison, the DoubleTree is a full service hotel with a full restaurant, banquet and meeting facilities, a swimming pool and an exercise room.
However, any new hotel makes an impact on business in general, including the DoubleTree, he said.
Of course, by the time the town meeting votes on the change in zoning, which would be this spring, assuming it is passed by voters, it would still be another nine or 12 months before the hotel could be built if all goes well.
“Maybe by then the economy will be a little more flexible,” Tziahanas said.
Another hotel has already been proposed for Route 9 in Shrewsbury, across the street from the Borders bookstore.
Value Place Hotel, a Florida-based chain, has proposed a four-story, 121-room weekly residence hotel, and received preliminary site plan approval in November from the Planning Board. An abutter has appealed the planning board approval.
The approval also requires that Liberty VP Shrewsbury LLC, the developer on the project, get town approval for a commercial subdivision plan for the same lot.
The hotel plan became possible a couple of years ago when Town Meeting voted to change the zoning for that parcel from multi-family housing to a commercial business zone.
Another Value Place Hotel has been proposed off Route 146 at 277 Providence St. in Worcester. It was approved, with conditions, on Feb. 4, by the Worcester Planning Board. It will need a special permit from Worcester’s Zoning Board of Appeals and approval from its Conservation Commission.
Surabian and his lawyer, Richard Ricker, also of Shrewsbury, could not be reached for comment.
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