A proposed 99-unit hotel in downtown Rutland that will include 26 residential apartments, a restaurant and rooftop bar will not need Act 250 approval.
The District 1 Environmental Commission, which helps oversee Act 250 permits in Rutland County, issued that opinion Friday. The opinion cites the hotel’s location within Rutland City’s designated downtown development district, local zoning bylaws and no impact to floodplains or river corridors.
Elisabeth Kulas, a consultant working for the project developer, says recent changes to Act 250 to promote housing development helped shape the decision, which she says will significantly speed up the project and reduce expenses.
“Oh, it's a big deal because it allows the developer to really focus on getting the project into the ground and up and going," says Kulas. "It’s actually rebuilding what was at one time there on the site and long overdue.”
The historic Berwick Hotel burned down in 1973 and the lot — known in Rutland as "the pit" — has been vacant ever since.
Hali Issente, executive director of the Downtown Rutland Partnership, says people who live downtown are very excited about the project.
“Because a downtown hotel is something that everyone wants,” he says. “It would be a place where tourists can stay and it would have a rooftop bar, which is just incredibly exciting, adding to our downtown nightlife.”
He says he gets a lot of calls at the partnership from folks who are looking to visit Rutland. “And they want a place to stay that is within the downtown district, you know, walkable to Amtrak, walkable to restaurants, walkable to places to shop, to the Paramount for a show that they might be seeing, or to Wunderfeet Kids Museum, to visit with their grandkids.”
He says this would provide that and more. Along with a $6 million expansion of the Paramount Theatre across the street, he hopes the hotel will be a catalyst for even more investment in the city.
Both he and Elisabeth Kulas praised the addition of 26 new apartments as filling a critical need for new housing in the city.
The proposed hotel will still need local permit approval, but if all goes as planned, Kulas says site cleanup — which she estimates will cost around $5 million — will begin next spring with construction to follow.
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