To the Editor:
The City Council’s hearing on the Carr Hotel was a joke. When a developer can essentially threaten the city that he won’t build a hotel at the 220 South Union site unless it has 120 rooms, then we are in deep trouble. Apparently Carr and the city staff do not want to denigrate Carr’s projected return on investment (ROI) and that means 120 rooms or Carr walks away from the deal. In my opinion let them walk, walk, walk.
The mass, shape and scale are not reflective of the 19th century warehouse that was intended for this location. It is too large for the site. It needs to be scaled way back to reflect a real boutique hotel like the Morrison House (45 rooms). While they are at it, the city needs to redefine what a real boutique hotel is and it’s not 150 rooms, it’s a lot less. They should be planning for about 50 or so rooms in this small space. In other words keep the height down to around 30 feet and the floor area ratio between 1 and 2. This is a historic city and this building needs to reflect that.
Since this development is the first one out of the gate since the city recently passed the Waterfront Plan it needs to done right. Otherwise the other developments to follow will also be overly dense and result in real eyesores. The proposed architecture is seedy at best. The building looks like an oversized jail. The council spent 90 percent of their discussion time before voting in trying to make a number of cosmetic changes to the building, but not once did they discuss the mass and scale of this oversized monstrosity. Density is all they care about as it yields the greatest dollar payback in tax revenues. How it fits in historically is totally ignored.
This decision by council is right in tune with all the other poor decisions they have made in the last couple of years. The only council member who has voted the right way on every new development is Allison Silberberg. It is a shame she was not at the hearing on the Carr Hotel as the vote would have been 6-1 and not 6-0. Not a win either way but a message ….
Townsend A. “Van” Van Fleet, Alexandria