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The Omni and Beyond
Hotel room expansion and renovation projects spread across the region
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Business New Haven
11/3/1997
By: Louise Beecher
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When times are tough in the business world, travel budgets are among the first things many companies slash. But when the good times return, those budgets start creeping back up.
With the business climate definitely on the warming side, the area is experiencing an upswing in hotel renovation and construction. But as the hospitality industry moves to meet existing demand, the very act of creating new spaces for business to meet and exhibit is itself expected to attract more business travelers to the region.
In New Haven, the former Howard Johnson's at Long Wharf is being transformed into the Grand Chalet Inn & Suites, while the former Park Plaza is undergoing total renovation prior to reopening as the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale.
In Orange, the Marriott Corp. has built a new 121-room Courtyard by Marriott. In Shelton, Ramada is building a 140-room AmeriSuite hotel and contemplating adding another 3,000 to 4,000 square feet of meeting space to its existing Ramada Plaza. In Waterbury, a former Holiday Inn has been transformed into another Courtyard by Marriott, while the Sheraton franchise's Four Points Hotel has undergone a complete overhaul.
While all of these hostelries are providing new, improved or enlarged space for business activities, the New Haven Hotel and the Omni New Haven at Yale are taking things one step further: Both are considering expanding into adjoining buildings to create additional conference and exhibition facilities.
The Omni, at 155 Temple Street, has exercised its option to take over 22,000 square feet in the Chapel Square Mall, the adjoining retail facility that houses the recently relocated Yale Co-op and other stores. Tia Zaferakis, the hotel's director of sales, says that specific plans for the space will be unveiled when the hotel opens in January. She will not comment on the status of Omni's option to buy the entire mall from its current owner, a foundation set up by the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce.
The Omni is currently treating the former Park Plaza to a $31 million overhaul. When it reopens, it will have 308 rooms for guests, and for businessmen such amenities as boardrooms, a business center and 22 conference rooms.
The 92-room New Haven Hotel, 229 George Street, owned by Temple Ventures Ltd. Partnership, is planning to develop a 20,000-square-foot conference center on the first and second floors of the former United Illuminating headquarters building at 80 Temple Street. Alvin Greenberg, M.D., managing partner in the hotel and the Temple Medical Center across the street, bought the vacant building from Chase Enterprises of Hartford early this year in partnership with Edmund Fusco of the Fusco Corp.
Steve Nigro, the hotel's general manager, says there are as yet no schedule or specific plans for the project, although the possibility of turning part of the space into an amphitheater has been discussed.
Chalet Susse International of Milton, N.H., is spending $2 million to turn the former Howard Johnson's at Long Wharf into a 152-room Grand Chalet Inn & Suites.
Although slated to open at roughly the same time as the much larger Omni in early 1998, Chalet's regional sales manager, Anthony Neri, says that ought to pose no problem. “There's enough business in New Haven for all the existing businesses,” he says. “Omni will be drawing in organizations and groups that could not have come into New Haven previously because of a lack of space..”
Chalet Susse will cater to business people with 55 suites that will be divided by an arch into sleeping and meeting areas, says Neri. It will also have a function space that will be managed by a yet-unnamed chain that will operate the inn's restaurant.
The brand new 121-room Courtyard by Marriott that opened in September in Orange assured itself a steady supply of business clients by its location at 36 Marsh Hill Road, conveniently off I-95 and down the street from pharmaceutical giant Bayer. But what it did not anticipate, says Director of Sales Denise Ras, was that the town's liquor regulations would have Marriott incorporating 3,200 square feet of meeting space into its facility - much more than the usual Courtyard chain.
Local interest in using the space is running high, says Ras. “From what I understand the area is in desperate need of this kind of facility,” she says. The company is currently studying how best to meet that need and hopes to start booking the space in January, she adds.
Dave Greco, director of sales and marketing for the 160-room Ramada Plaza Hotel at 789 Bridgeport Avenue in Shelton, says his facility too is blessed by its location. “There are not a lot of hotels in an area with hundreds of corporations - including 35 corporate headquarters,” he notes.
To meet the need the Ramada, which underwent a $2 million facelift early in 1996, is planning to add another 3,000 or 4,000 square feet of meeting space. It also is building a 140-room AmeriSuite hotel across the street.
Waterbury has seen $7 million poured into two major hotels in the past two years: $3 million to turn the former downtown Holiday Inn into a Courtyard by Marriott, and $4 million to overhaul the Sheraton Four Points.
Courtyard General Manager Michael Adams says that the 200-room facility, located near the new Brass Center Mall, caters principally to business clients. The hotel is has 7,000 square feet of space available for business meetings. An continuing project to dismantle a former nightclub will add 4,100 more.
Although the 280-room Sheraton Four Points Hotel has had a checkered history recently - it closed briefly when its previous owner went bankrupt last year - a group of private investors has since put it through a major renovation that is set to culminate with a reopening December 3.
Bob Dorr, director of sales and marketing, says the hotel is targeting the convention and business trade. It has 25,000 square feet of space available for meetings, making it one of the biggest such facilities in the state. BNH
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