Plans filed to convert Holiday Inn on Emmet Street 191-unit apartment complex

For years, long-term plans for U.S. 29 in both Albemarle County and Charlottesville have called for commercial uses to be replaced with places for people to live.

There has been progress toward implementation of that idea such as at Stonefield which has seen hundreds of units built in the last dozen years. There are several plans for new construction of hundreds of units at various stages of development.

To that number we can now add 191 new units now that potential new owners of the Holiday Inn on Emmet Street have filed plans to convert the structure into an apartment building to be called The Palms.

Brick Lane LLC has a contract to buy 1901 Emmet Street according to a July 24, 2025 request for a zoning determination.

“Most of the changes will be internal to the existing building with a new small pool and deck proposed, along with potential utility upgrades,” reads the letter from attorney Lori Schweller with the firm Williams Mullen. “All other elements of the existing site will remain, and no new structures, buildings, entrance changes, or land disturbance beyond utility upgrades are proposed.”

While the letter from Williams Mullen states a range from 186 to 200 units, information in the city’s permit portal states there would be 191 units.

The four-acre property is zoned Node Mixed Use 8 which would allow adaptive re-use of the seven-story hotel constructed in 1972.

“The NX-8 District permits the proposed use of the Property as multi-family residential without the necessity of obtaining a conditional or special use permit, variance, special exception, or other authorization or approval,” reads an October 17, 2025 letter from Charlottesville Zoning Administrator Read Brodhead responding to Schweller’s request.

There are no modifications for access to the site which include entrances onto both Hydraulic Road and U.S. 29.

According to the site plan created by the firm Line and Grade, the existing vestibule will be removed. It cost $5,620 to submit the site plan which was paid for on October 24. A site plan conference was held on October 27.

I wrote a version of this story for C-Ville Weekly as well shortly after this was published. Take a look!

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