Plan for new hotel clears final hurdle
By MICHAEL STAPLES; staples.michael@dailygleaner.com
11 Apr 2012
Fredericton is allowing construction of a hotel next to Kent Building Supplies on Bishop Drive.
At Tuesday’s regular weekly council meeting, members approved an earlier recommendation by the city’s planning advisory committee clearing way for Hampton Inn and Suites by Hilton to move forward with a proposed five-storey facility.
The hotel will include 107 guest rooms and a conference room.
As part of the approval process, council endorsed a rezoning application, to highway-commercial from service-industrial.
A height variance was also granted for the hotel, as the height limit for buildings in the highway-commercial zone is 11 metres. The hotel will be 16.9-metres tall.
Mayor Brad Woodside said the complex is being constructed in the right area.
“They needed some extra land for right-of-way and that was granted was council,” he said. “It’s gone through the process.”
Woodside said the hotel is a private-sector initiative, based on supply and demand.
“They’ve done their due diligence and they have come to the conclusion that there was room and we support that.”
The development will be handled by D.P. Murphy Inc. of Charlottetown, which is also the municipality’s choice to build a downtown hotel project adjacent to the Fredericton Convention Centre.
The Murphy group is the operator of Moncton’s Hampton Inn and Suites property built a couple of years ago.
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