The conversion of a former Holiday Inn to apartments can take place with minimal permitting, as the new Node Mixed Use 8 district allows residential. Supplied photo.
Since 1972, the Holiday Inn on Emmet Street has been a temporary home for people visiting the Charlottesville area and the University of Virginia.
In the near future, dozens of people may call the seven-story building their permanent home.
“The Palms Charlottesville conversion will feature approximately 190 apartments, primarily focused on small affordable units, but also including a mix of larger market-rate apartments,” said Jeff Gross, a principal with development firm Brick Lane. “The project will bring a unique Palm Springs, mid-century design to the conversion of the existing hotel.”
Brick Lane is based in Charleston, South Carolina. The company has filed a site plan with the City of Charlottesville to convert 170 hotel rooms into multifamily apartments.
Brick Lane is active in the mid-Atlantic region and has won awards for projects such as the conversion of a former helicopter factory in Washington, D.C., into 15 condominiums and the adaptive re-use of a bottling plant in Frederick, Maryland, into 86 luxury apartments.
Staff in the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development Services have confirmed that the conversion can take place with minimal permitting because residential use is allowed in the new Node Mixed Use 8 district. Brick Lane is under contract to purchase the property from Emmet Hotel LLC.
“The NX-8 district permits the proposed use of the Property as multi-family residential without the necessity of obtaining a conditional or special use permit, variance, special exception or other authorization or approval,” reads an October 17 letter from zoning administrator Read Brodhead to attorneys working for Brick Lane.
Brodhead said anything added to the site, such as a proposed deck and pool, will need to be reviewed against the new code. The review is underway. The Planning Commission, acting as the city’s Entrance Corridor Review Board, will need to approve new signage.
Matt Alfele, the city’s development planning manager, said Brick Lane representatives promised at a pre-application meeting that all of the units would meet the city’s affordability guidelines.
Brick Lane’s website states that the company specializes in hospitality conversions, including the Flats at Shady Grove in Rockville, Maryland, where a hotel built in 1986 was turned into 203 apartments in 2017.
The proposal is the latest to place residential units directly onto U.S. 29 or within close proximity. In July, the ECRB approved the design of a new 267-unit apartment building to be built on the site of the Hibachi Grill at 1185 Seminole Trl. A rezoning of an adjacent property in Albemarle County to allow for a 165-unit apartment building is on hold.
Further to the north at 1305 Seminole Trl., Woda Cooper Companies of Columbus, Ohio, wants to build 92 units that would all meet the county’s definition of affordable. A nonprofit called SupportWorksLLC is building 80 units on the site of the now-demolished Red Carpet Inn.
The Holiday Inn on Emmet Street is within the geographic scope of the Hydraulic Small Area Plan, a document approved in 2018 that suggests the area would be best suited for commercial use. This plan helped the community secure funds from the Virginia Department of Transportation for the conversion of the intersection of Hillsdale Drive and Hydraulic Road into a roundabout as well as a pedestrian bridge across U.S. 29 that will open on November 13.
This will not be the first time a hotel has been converted to residential use. The Monticello Hotel in Court Square opened in 1925 and was converted to condominiums in 1973.
