Plans for new hotel up in the air
If you’ve ever needed to book a hotel room for guests visiting you in Berkeley, you’ll know choices are thin on the ground.
The Claremont has the monopoly at the higher end — and don’t they know it — and then there’s the rest.
So I took notice last summer when I heard talk of a swanky new hotel mooted for downtown Berkeley. Pity then that it may not happen.
The plans to build a 19-story hotel and conference center on Center Street, called the Berkeley Charles Hotel, were being discussed as part of the broader regeneration of downtown currently under way, which includes the construction of the Toyo Ito- designed Berkeley Art Museum, slated to open in 2013.
The hotel’s developers, Carpenter & Company, were working in tandem with the same group behind the upscale Charles Hotel in Cambridge, Ma.
But now the Planet reports that the project has stalled. There’s some ambiguity however, with the city’s Mayor, Tom Bates, quoted as saying “it’s no more”, while UC spokesperson Christine Shaff insists the university is still pursuing the project. (The university hopes to put up campus visitors and host conventions at the new hotel.)
While we await a final verdict, you might try the newly opened Hotel Shattuck Plaza. And a friend tells me the accommodation at the Berkeley City Club is very old-school, in a good way, with period details and comfortable, albeit modestly sized rooms.
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What makes it even more of a pity is that the Charles Hotel in Cambridge is one of my all-time favorite hotels. I was hoping they’d bring that style and service to Berkeley. It would have been a real leap ahead compared to what we have now.
Deja Vu,
It’s hard to believe after all these years that there is a “Hotel Shattuck *Plaza*.” When I went to Whittier school (then “Whittier University Elementary”), my kindergarten teacher, Josie Stewart, who was not well-to-do at all, lived in a suite at the Shattuck Hotel.
I learned to swim in the pool of the Berkeley (Women’s) City Club. Hard to believe it offers public accommodations.
–rj
@lance
The Charles is a great hotel. This is the first I heard that there was one planned for downtown Berkeley. To learn that it’s not going to happen in the same post is almost too much to bear!
I blogged about this almost a year ago: http://www.norcalblogs.com/dog/2007/06/greater-downtown-lessons-from.html
@Alan Chamberlain
Great post Alan!
This news is not surprising in this economy. But never say never, real estate development has long cycles, and something like the proposed project may come back again, especially given the other news that the Art Museum move to downtown is still alive and progressing, which will eventually help attract other amenities. The newly opened David Brower Center will also help along these lines.
Also note that the newly remodeled Hotel Shattuck Plaza just opened last week, and has received some nice initial reviews: http://www.hotelshattuckplaza.com/
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g32066-d76013-r31893648-Hotel_Shattuck_Plaza-Berkeley_California.html