When the Hampton Inn & Suites opens early next month in Providence’s financial district, developers are hoping that the “mid-tier” facility will occupy a unique niche among the city’s more than 2,000 hotel rooms, particularly for business travelers.
At a cost of approximately $20 million, the hotel at 58 Weybosset St. remains under construction at the site of the former St. Francis Chapel, a building dating back about 80 years that first housed the Old Colony Bank, located across from The Arcade. The original structure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been expanded, with construction of an adjacent 11-story addition connected to it.
“It’s a select-service, mid-tier product, probably the most dominant mid-tier product in the industry,” said James J. Karam, founder and president of First Bristol Corp., a real estate development and management firm based in Fall River. First Bristol is developing the hotel in partnership with Granoff Associates of Providence, which owns The Arcade.
Karam explained that the hotel “concentrates on the rooms, it concentrates on the business center with free Internet access, it concentrates on the breakfast room” with a complete breakfast buffet.
What the Hampton won’t have, Karam said, are banquet rooms and high-end restaurants. “It’s the marketing position of our hotel that those are items that usually cost a hotel money,” he said. “So, by eliminating those we can pass that [cost] on in savings to our guests with lower rates, and they can take the savings and go eat at any number of high-end restaurants in Providence.”
Standard rooms are “oversized,” according to Karam, “because it’s a historic building and you have to meet existing conditions. Because of that, the rooms are a little wider and larger than normal.” Most of the rooms are equipped with wet bars, microwave ovens, mini-refrigerators, and all have both wireless and hard-wired Internet access.
The hotel has 110 rooms, including 40 suites. The regular rental rate per night will be about $159 for a standard room and about $179 for a suite, Karam said.
“Our primary focus is both the business traveler and the leisure traveler,” he said. “People coming into the area, especially families, they are more value-conscious today. We find our product gives people a high-end experience at a moderate price.”
In downtown Providence, currently there are 2,200 rooms in nine major hotels, ranging from 564 rooms at the largest, Westin Providence, to 14 rooms at the Hotel Dolce Villa off Atwells Avenue, according to figures supplied by the Providence-Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau.
In 2008, according to the convention and visitors bureau, occupancy rate of Providence hotels was 60.7 percent, with the average daily room rate at $145.84. In 2007, the occupancy rate was 63.1 percent with an average daily room rate of $154.35.
Kristen Adamo, vice president of marketing and communications at the Providence-Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau, explained that the average daily rate includes special packages and discounts, often dependent on the time of year.
Adamo said that 2007 was a tricky year to evaluate because both the Renaissance and the second tower of the Westin came online during that year, leading to a more competitive marketplace with more rooms to fill. Although the occupancy rate and average daily room rate declined in 2008, she noted that more downtown hotel rooms were actually filled last year, a total of 497,345 in 2008 versus 469,508 the year before.
The Hampton Inn project is slated to receive about $5 million in federal and state historic tax credits. Construction began in November 2007. The hotel originally was scheduled to open in early December and then in the first week of January, but construction delays have now pushed the opening to early March. Stone Street Construction of Providence is in charge of the project.
Karam cites the difficulty of merging an existing historic building with a brand new addition as a key reason for the delays.
There’s one aspect of the new Hampton that Karam is especially proud of – a penthouse room at the top of the hotel, about 2,500 square feet in size, that can hold about 50 or 60 people for small parties or meetings. “It’s probably got one of the nicest views in Providence,” he said. “It overlooks the river and [Narragansett Bay] on one side, and on the other side it overlooks the Statehouse. It’s just spectacular views.” •
