Asheville Hilton hotel proposal gets committee 'OK'; to donate $240K in public benefits
ASHEVILLE - A new south Asheville hotel proposal received unanimous approval from of the City of Asheville Design Review Committee at its May 16 meeting, with some conditions regarding the building's aesthetics.
The proposal calls for a new six-story, 80-room Tru by Hilton hotel with 80 rooms to be built on the site of the former Arby's location at 375 Long Shoals Road. There are at least 16 Hilton brand hotels in the Asheville-area, according to the Hilton website.
City Principal Planner Will Palmquist noted it is the first hotel the committee has reviewed outside of the Downtown or River Arts District hotel overlays, as the hotel is located in one of the further south overlays near the Asheville Airport.
March 26 planning documents indicate the hotel plans to pay an estimated $240,000 to meet the public benefits process requirements. The money will go to city affordable housing or reparations funds.
The developer has indicated they plan to contract a minority or woman-owned enterprise while building the hotel and provide an additional $300 per room to a "neighborhood improvement" fund.
The public benefits table was developed by city staff and city council in 2021 after the multi-year hotel moratorium as a way to provide a "strong incentive to incorporate high priority public benefits, such as affordable housing, living wages and green building elements into a hotel project," according to the city website.
The hotel has been proposed by Asheville-based hotel hotelier Hites "HP" Patel. Patel serves as treasurer of the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority nonprofit.
The hotel had previously seen informal review from the committee on April 18, with the committee suggesting "more expressive treatment of street facing entrance" and had noted hotel development guidelines recommend against "prototypical" designs, a suggestion to encourage design creativity.
During the May 16 meeting, city staff suggested the committee consider balancing "corporate branding and area architecture" as the project brings a colorful blue and yellow exterior to Long Shoals Road.
Project architect Thomas Lemberg said the stark blue and yellow of the hotel is what identifies the Tru by Hilton brand, noting architects can play with the colors, but run into conflict with the brand.
Committee member Bryan Moffitt indicated the committee wasn't interested in changing the color of the hotel, but instead took note of the first level's gray and black exterior, which could be replaced with another material in line with hotel development in the area.
Committee member Michael McDonough suggested that masonry would look better on the exterior of the first floor. McDonough noted that hotels in other municipalities have "more masonry," and felt some developers weren't "bringing their 'A' game to Asheville" when proposing hotel designs.
Lemberg said they had worked on projects where cities had required masonry in place of other materials and expressed that a "standard brick" in place of the bottom paneling would make the most sense.
The committee recommended approval of the hotel, with the conditions that the applicant revise material on the first floor of the building to a brown or beige brick and consider the size of trees on the property and revisions to the adjacent sidewalk.
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Will Hofmann is the Growth and Development Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Got a tip? Email him at WHofmann@citizentimes.com. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: South Asheville Hilton hotel proposal gets committee 'OK'
