This photograph includes an artist’s rendering of The Commons in Lexington Center, a 30-unit condominium development that will replace the Battle Green Inn & Suites.
There’s no room at the inn. After 48 years in the heart of trendy Lexington Center, the modest Battle Green Inn & Suites soon will be razed to make way for a luxury condominium project called The Commons in Lexington Center.
Since the Dwight D. Eisenhower administration, the unpretentious Battle Green has offered “comfortable, clean and affordable rooms” for as low $49. As competition grew, the humble motel could not compete with “freebies” from the region’s lush hotels including wireless Internet, flat-screen televisions, Italian marble baths, or the guestroom designed by Britney Spears’ mother, Lynne, who replicated her famous daughter’s childhood bedroom at Boston’s Onyx Hotel.
While few are mourning the landmark’s demise, the hotel’s failure signals an end to a no-frills lodging place for travelers who can’t afford elegantly furnished rooms .
“It is doubtful that another budget hotel will take its place,” said Art Canter, president and chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Lodging Association, a trade group that represents 400 hotel, motel, resort, inn and bed-and-breakfast owners. “There will always be travelers who just want a roof over their head accessible to wherever they want to be.”
Construction is expected to commence shortly on The Commons in Lexington Center. The $20 million development project will replace the 1950s vintage motel with a 30-unit mixed-used building featuring retail on the Massachusetts Avenue side and an entrance on Waltham Street.
The motel’s owner, Eric Shapiro, paid $3.5 million for the facility in 2001 and it is assessed at $2.1 million, according to town records. Shapiro could not be reached for comment.
Gwendolyn Noyes, marketing director for Oaktree Development, the Cambridge-based developer who received approval for the project, said while Town Meeting members supported the development by an overwhelming majority, there were concerns about whether housing was the right fit for Lexington’s downtown.
“Some people were nervous about more housing,” she said. “They feared more kids in the schools driving up taxes and they also thought living near restaurants would be noisy. As a result we reduced the number of units by 10.”
Rumors are circulating that Cohoes, a discount clothing store near the Battle Green, will close and be transformed into condominiums. Robert L. LaPenta, vice president of Burlington Coat Factory, the parent company, did not return repeated calls seeing comment.
“The sentiment seems clear that the town wants to see how our mixed-use project works before they consider any others downtown,” Noyes said.
‘Pretty Skanky’
Plans for The Commons in Lexington Center include condominiums on the second and third floors priced from $500,000 to more than $1 million. The project has been downsized from 40 units, according to Maryann McCall-Taylor, director of the Lexington Planning Board.
Over the years, the reviews for the Battle Green have been extreme. The most recent one on tripadvisor.com said, “We opened the room door to find a bullet hole in the bathroom window Â… the room was absolutely filthy, bed on verge of collapse. Can’t even describe the carpeting, looked like someone had been ill. My husband and I looked at each other, went back downstairs, and threw the keys on the desk.”
Another visitor wrote, “I turned down the bedspread and found it crawling with bed bugs Â… this slum doesn’t belong in an upscale town such as Lexington.” Yet another wrote, “The chairs in the room are stained and filthy and after losing a key we lifted up a cushion to find cigarette butts and other assorted garbage. Under the mattress was dirty laundry so I can assume the sheets have not been changed in a while.”
Karen Wales, owner of Wales Copy Center – which has been in Lexington Center for nearly three decades – said she will not miss the hotel.
“It’s been a disaster,” Wales said. “It’s been through a few different owners over the years and it’s pretty skanky inside. This is a tourist town and it would have been awesome to have a place where people could stay here. But not in that condition.”
Wales said the owner missed an opportunity to revitalize the hotel and make it a vital part of the historic downtown. She said Shapiro overpaid for the property and couldn’t afford the renovations after redoing two of the rooms.
“Eric spent a ton of money to get these high-priced architects and they came up with all these fancy plans for condos,” she said. “But if he had spent all that money on a professional hotel manager and came in to revamp it, everyone would have benefited.”
Richard Michelson, owner of Michelson’s Shoes, a retailer in the center since 1919, said the hotel would be missed because merchants depended upon hotel guests to shop and dine in town.
“Part of we do is to serve people who visit historic Lexington and now these people will be farther away,” Michelson said. “The Battle Green was a viable hotel from the 1960s though the 1990s when we constantly had people coming to town, staying there and spending money. We sacrificed 90 rooms with people on vacation and money in their pockets and no place to eat for 30 homes with people who have their own kitchens. Those new residents will not be able to eat out nightly, especially after they pay $1 million for their condo.”
The latest Lexington condominium project comes on the heels of another downtown development that offers 13 units for sale priced from $679,900 to nearly $1 million on Fletcher Avenue. The Jefferson Union Co. condominiums feature hardwood floors, granite countertops, central air conditioning, an outdoor deck, a landscaped courtyard and reserved off-street parking. Construction is expected to be completed later this year.
