The city’s Board of Architectural Review has taken a look at preliminary plans for a new hotel to be built in a downtown location space where City Council previously approved a special use permit for residential apartments.
“We’re changing our use from residential that worked well with you to go through a [special use permit] process for that, but instead we’re going to switch over to hotel use which we’re excited about,” said Jeffrey Levien of Heirloom Development.
Levien spent many nights at city meetings to get a special use permit for 218 West Market street to make way for a nine-story apartment building. On April 16, he appeared in CitySpace to ask the Charlottesville Board of Architectural Review for their thoughts on the project going through a substantial pivot.
“What we really want to understand today is whether the floor layouts with those rooms would work,” Levien said. “We are working with a brand so there are certain requirements you follow, certain layouts you follow.”
Levien is the principal behind Heirloom Development which built a luxury apartment building on West Main Street while keeping two buildings including one that houses the Blue Moon Diner. New architects have been brought in for the new work.
“We are working with a site that has two street frontages at different heights,” said Cassidy Droski with NBJ Architecture in Richmond.
Vehicular drop-off would be on Market Street via a one-lane aisle whereas the retail entrance would be on Old Preston Avenue. A connecting feature between both openings would be a staircase. There will also be a patio and a rooftop bar. As for height, Droski said it would be comparable to the nearby Code Building.
Levien said is hoping to return to the BAR in June with a formal application.
When a formal application is submitted, the plans would be reviewed under the new Development Code. Planning Commissioner and BAR member Carl Schwarz pointed out there are new requirement for streetscapes that did not appear to be met in the preliminary plan.
“I believe you have to meet those because your property is more than a hundred feet long,” Schwarz said. “And what I think I’ve pulled out from the code is that if you can’t meet the streetscape requirements because there is not enough room, your setback actually gets moved back so that you then can put in the street trees that are required.”
Other than that, Schwarz said he thought the plans are heading in the right direction.
BAR Member Breck Gastinger said the preliminary application lacked information about how the site would interact with surrounding buildings.
“I find it even a little bit hard to review the massing because the existing context other than a couple of little thumb-nails 3D’s are now shown,” Gastinger said.
Gastinger said the site is awkwardly shaped but he hoped that could lead to interesting architecture.
“It is an important location,” Gastinger said. “It is one of the most prominent locations actually from some of the approaches to the city.”
BAR Member Cheri Lewis said one favorable factor is the presence of a similar project next door.
“I think you benefit from being right across from the Omni,” Lewis said. “If we’re looking at the surrounding environment, at least that helps my consideration. It will always be a larger building than at least this one.”
Only four of the eight members of the BAR were present at the meeting so it is possible this will go back before them in May for another preliminary discussion.
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