A development group hopes to jump-start a long-stalled hotel project in Boston’s Theater District with revised plans for a 346-room "micro hotel" with smaller guest rooms and increasing the project’s height from 19 to 23 stories.
The project at 240 Tremont St. was originally proposed by Amherst Media Investors Boston LLC and Tremont Stuart Development; it was updated in 2012 with plans for a 240-room, 19-story hotel with ground-floor retail and restaurant space, according to a letter to the Boston Redevelopment Authority by attorney Bernard Shadrawy Jr. of Boston.
Under the revised plans, the room count would rise from 240 to 345 and the gross floor area would increase from 101,000 to 125,000 square feet. The average room size is approximately 200 square feet, Shadrawy said. A 5,000-square-foot rooftop restaurant and lounge, including a 500-square-foot outdoor patio, also has been added to the design. The hotel would still have a prominent digital billboard at the corner of Tremont and Stuart streets.
The developers have added Faros Properties LLC, a real estate firm owned by Alexander and Jeremy Leventhal, and Highgate Capital Investment LP as joint venture partners. A Highgate affiliate operates independent and flagship hotels in the New York City region.
The new partners "would significantly strengthen the proposed project team and indicate the proponent’s commitment to advancing the site’s development potential with highly experienced and financially sound hotel development partners," the letter states.
Group One Partners is the lead architect for the project, which would be built on a 5,810-square-foot vacant lot owned by the BRA.
The developers say the changes should not require another review by the BRA because micro hotels tend to attract guests who rely on public transportation, so traffic would not be significantly affected.
In December, the BRA gave the developers a three-month extension of their designation as site proponents.
The BRA will schedule a community meeting in April for the developers to present the new plans to neighbors, BRA spokesman Nick Martin said.
