The developer of a planned nine-story apartment building at 218 W. Market St. is considering building a hotel there instead.
“It’s a great opportunity to further expose the Downtown Mall to visitors coming into Charlottesville, and increase the vitality of our downtown,” says Jeffrey Levien of Heirloom Development.
In September 2020, City Council granted Levien’s company a special use permit for additional height and residential density for up to 134 apartments. On Tuesday, April 9, the Board of Architectural Review had a preliminary discussion on new plans that would instead see a six-story building with 160 rooms.
The BAR approved a demolition permit for the existing site in November 2021, but that authority runs out next March.
An official application has not yet been filed, and any new proposal will be reviewed under the city’s new zoning code. The Timmons Group developed a preliminary concept plan for a six-story building in which guests would be dropped off on Market Street. There would be 160 rooms in a 139,315 square-foot building. The new zoning does not require any parking spaces, but the structure’s plans include 116 spots in an internal garage.
The property is currently the home of a shopping center that still houses Artful Lodger and The Livery Stable. Last August, the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning for a new home for Artful Lodger at 2428 Richmond Rd.
Heirloom Development also created the 57-unit Six Hundred West Main apartment building that’s located behind the Blue Moon Diner. In addition, the company has plans to construct a similar residential structure next door, on the site of a former automotive repair shop.
Levien says that project is on hold while his company evaluates whether
it may be better to proceed under the new zoning.
“It will take a considerable amount of design and costing and underwriting to figure that out,” he says.
If 218 W. Market St. does become a hotel, it would be next door to the Omni, which recently completed a $15 million renovation project.
Elsewhere in Charlottesville, the 198-room Forum Hotel at the Darden School of Business opened last April, and the University of Virginia is constructing the 217-room Virginia Guesthouse as part of the Emmet-Ivy Corridor.
Last April, the burned-down husk of the Excel Inn was demolished to make way for a replacement seven-story, 72-room hotel. City Council approved a special use permit for that in October 2018, but the project has not moved forward.
There are currently no plans for anything to happen with the abandoned Downtown Mall shell, which is owned by Atlanta-based developer John Dewberry. It has now been more than 15 years since construction halted, and nearly 12 since Dewberry bought the property at auction for $6.25 million, and promised a luxury hotel.