A planned downtown hotel will bring badly needed lodging and parking to downtown Tempe, a city official said.
Concrete plans are still being finalized, but the hotel, a Marriott Residence Inn, will have about 150 rooms in an 11-story building on the southwest corner of Fifth and Forest avenues, said Chris Salomone, Tempe's community development manager.
The hotel will replace the vacant building that once housed the Bandersnatch Brew Pub across the street from the Towers Complex.
Preliminary plans call for a restaurant and parking garage, according to city documents.
The garage would include both hotel and public parking. Retail stores would flank the street to "create a nice walkable frontage area," Salomone added.
The garage would supply about 300 additional spaces to be used for City Hall next door and the city court across Fifth Avenue, Salomone said.
City staff and commissions must approve the project before construction can begin. Salomone said that will be mid-2007 at the earliest.
Developers are working with city staff to make sure the building's design fits in with the downtown architecture, Salomone said.
As a Residence Inn, the hotel will cater primarily to business customers in town for extended periods, Salomone said.
It fits in well with Tempe's other development in the area, he added.
A Le Meridian hotel near Tempe Town Lake will bring the city a four- or five-star, "very upper-end hotel," Salomone said.
The city expects more commitments from mid-range hotels, he added.
"And we have a need for these residence hotels, a little longer-term, business-type hotels," Salomone said.
Councilwoman Onnie Shekerjian said hotels are a key part of Tempe's downtown development.
"We definitely can use more hotel rooms," she said. "There's a lot of things we could attract to Tempe if we had more hotel rooms."
Reach the reporter at jonathan.cooper@asu.edu
