Asheville City Council approves restaurant, bar for 103-room hotel on Biltmore Avenue
Asheville residents can still expect to see a 103-room Extended Stay Hotel coming to Biltmore Avenue, now including a restaurant and bar and an aesthetic redesign.
City Council approved amendments to the project's plan at its Jan. 25 meeting in a 5-2 vote.
Councilperson Kim Roney voted against the amendments after voicing concerns about a lack of updates to multimodal infrastructure, like the addition of bus stops, and safe access for people crossing the street.
Councilperson Gwen Wisler also voted against the project, and said though she does find the amendments to be an improvement, she wanted to remain consistent with her dissenting vote after the hotel's initial proposal in 2019.
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Originally approved by City Council in March 2019, the project calls for the development of a seven-story hotel on less than 1 acre of land near the Mission Hospital campus, located at 324 Biltmore Ave.
The applicant, Milan Asheville LLC, is requesting to amend the conditional zoning ordinance for certain aesthetic changes to the proposed building, while keeping the overall height, size, orientation and footprint of the project the same, or marginally reduced.
Among these amendments is the inclusion of a restaurant and bar for the second-floor lobby and outdoor patio area, also a new addition.
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City Planner Shannon Tuch, who presented the changes to City Council on Jan. 25, said the applicants always intended for the project to include a restaurant and bar, but it wasn't mentioned specifically in the initial designs.
The restaurant would be a limited-menu bistro, and primarily serve the lodgers in the hotel.
The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of the proposed amendment in a 4-2 vote on Jan. 5.
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Tuch stressed that the structure hasn't changed, but that alterations to the exterior façade are proposed to move the design away from a typical, older-style, multi-family apartment aesthetic.
The updated renderings include changes to the materials and color palette, roofline, , screening of the garage and the addition of the balcony at the center of the structure.
Per the original proposal, 10-foot wide sidewalks will front the building on Biltmore Avenue, with a narrower sidewalk along White Fawn Drive.
Amendments also require that any proposed murals on the exterior of the building would be done by local or regional artists.
The hotel on Biltmore Avenue, just south of downtown Asheville, was one of the last hotel properties to be rezoned before the city's moratorium on new hotel permits was enacted in 2019. It was lifted in February 2021.
Mayor Esther Manheimer clarified that this project has already been approved as a hotel, and the vote on Jan. 25 was just making "tweaks" to project conditions.
The property is currently vacant and unimproved.
Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email shonosky@citizentimes.com or message on Twitter at @slhonosky.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville City Council approves Extended Stay Hotel amendments
