The downtown hotel team comprised of the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce, The City of Frederick Department of Economic Development, Frederick County Office of Economic Development, Downtown Frederick Partnership and Visit Frederick are enthusiastic about the results of the updated economic impact study and the ongoing discussions between the City and County about this critical project. To view the report in its entirety on the Chamber of Commerce website, click the link below.
Originally Published February 8, 2018
Frederick News-Post
By Mallory Panuska mpanuska@newspost.com
Marrying flexibility and history, a final design for the former Frederick Railroad building on East Patrick Street is approved and ready for implementation as part of the proposed downtown hotel and conference center.
Members of the city’s Historic Preservation Commission voted unanimously Thursday to approve plans to rehabilitate the early 20th-century building and turn it into a commercial spot. The building is one of the only structures on the 200-212 E. Patrick St. site set to remain standing within the plans for a four-story, 180-room hotel and 20,000-square-foot conference center. The commission spent many hours over the past several months going over the details of the renovation plans with developers Plamondon Hospitality Partners and architects from the two firms working on the project — Peter Fillat Architects and Bates Architects — before landing on the final version approved Thursday.
“We’re excited,” said architect Peter Fillat, the principal of Peter Fillat architects, after Thursday’s vote.
From trolleys and electricity to newspapers and art, the building has a storied history. The developers’ goal was to create a building that preserves that history and provides flexibility that could appeal to a variety of tenants. The developers and architects have said that attracting commercial tenants to a historic building can be a challenge.
The plans include four design options for different numbers of commercial tenants on the ground floor. The second level is designed for residential or office space.
The first, one-tenant option would gut the first level of the building, except for the significant interior structural walls. The second option would fit the ground floor for two tenants, while the third would accommodate three tenants. The fourth option, which Fillat called the most favorable in the last workshop, would turn the first floor of the building into a market.
The renovations approved Thursday include cleaning brick walls, repairing windows, repairing and replacing historic doors, reconstructing stone steps on the corner entrances, installing storefront windows and doors on the east and west sides of the train shed, installing fabric awnings and metal canopies at the first-floor window and door openings, restoring the original trolley car openings and installing metal and glass sectional garage doors, installing and screening a new rooftop HVAC system, and installing light fixtures.
The commissioners approved the majority of the renovation application as is, minus a stipulation to install diagonal supports on the awnings, per Chairman Dan Lawton.
Lawton, who made the motion for approval, said he was concerned about the proposed canopies projecting out and wanted to ensure they are supported. Fillat said after the vote that he had no problem with adding supports to the design.
The approval of the design is the final bureaucratic step in the development of the railroad building. The hotel and conference center, which will both be new buildings, still have approvals to obtain. The proposed structures have already gone through an initial approval to set height and size and will move next to the Planning Commission for site plan approvals. Once those approvals are granted, the plans will go back to the Historic Preservation Commission for design approval.
History of the Frederick Railroad building
Built in 1910, the building’s first use was an all-in-one terminal, waiting room, ticket office and freight depot to accommodate the trolley line that ran through western Maryland. Potomac Edison Co. was headquartered there, and operated a 17-mile stretch of trolley line from Frederick to Thurmont and sold electricity on the side. While the trolley line fizzled out in the late 1930s, Potomac Edison continued its electricity business at the building until 1967. The following year, The Frederick Post moved its headquarters into the building and remained there — after merging to become The Frederick News-Post in 2000 — until 2008. Since then, the space has been used a pop-up arts venue but today remains primarily vacant as it awaits its planned makeover.
Originally Published November 9, 2017
Frederick News-Post
By Mallory Panuska mpanuska@newspost.com
After months of discussion and tweaking, developers and architects working on Frederick’s proposed downtown hotel and conference center cleared a “major hurdle” Thursday with the city’s Historic Preservation Commission.
“Tonight was a major hurdle that we passed after many, many workshops and a lot of good back-and-forth between the Historic Preservation Commission and the development team,” developer Pete Plamondon Jr. said after commissioners voted 5-1 to approve a Level 1 review of the multimillion-dollar project.
The Level 1 review includes details regarding the height, mass, scale and general layout of the four-story, 180-room hotel, 20,000-square-foot conference center, neighboring retail building and courtyard planned for 200-212 E. Patrick St., along Carroll Creek.
Richard Griffin, the city’s director of economic development, said the approved plans will now go to the city’s Planning Commission. The commissioners will review roads, utilities and other details to help develop a site plan. The plans will then go back to the Historic Preservation Commission for a Level 2 review, which Griffin said includes the finer elements of the design, such as materials, lighting, landscaping and other details.
The commissioners held four workshops since July with architects from Bates Architects and Peter Fillat Architects, and developers with Plamondon Hospitality Partners and gave feedback on various elements of the design and construction, according to the guidelines of the Frederick Town Historic District.
Running parallel to those efforts are meetings between the project partners, key stakeholders, members of local preservation and cultural groups, the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development, and the Maryland Historical Trust. So far one informational meeting was held in late October and was well-attended, according to officials who went. The meetings are required as part of the Maryland Historical Trust Act of 1985’s consultation process, which requires state agencies to consult with the trust on projects receiving assistance. The downtown hotel project is set to receive money from the department.
Several members of the public who spoke at Thursday’s meeting expressed concern that members of the trust and Department of Housing and Community Development have not weighed in on details of the project included in the Level 1 review.
Anthony Moscato, chairman of the Frederick Preservation Trust, a local preservation advocacy group, asked the commissioners to postpone their decision on the review until those officials have full discussions about various studies completed to determine the impact of the building and other mitigation details.
Commissioner Matt Bonin agreed that the trust’s feedback is important to the project and served as the lone opposition vote to the Level 1 approval as a result.
Other speakers from the public expressed concerns about the height and massing of the project. Frederick resident John Menke said the hotel as designed could block the view of the city’s clustered spires. Jane Weir, a longtime opponent of the project, expressed concern about the lack of a solid 3-D design for the project and worries about the hotel taking up the entire area and disrupting the streetscape.
Most of the commissioners said they understand those concerns but do not believe the size is a major issue.
“I’m generally in favor of this project. It’s a hotel, it’s not a house, it’s not a small shop,” Commissioner Stephen Parnes said of the size. “This is [a] major, major structure in our downtown.”
Commission Chairman Dan Lawton agreed with Parnes’ assessment and pointed out that the commission’s job is primarily to ensure the developers do not “plop down a suburban Marriott hotel” in the downtown historic district. He said the architects and developers have listened to the concerns of the commissioners in the many workshops they held, made modifications based on their feedback, and are expected to make more.
The project is set to come to fruition with both public and private dollars. The city, county and state are slated to contribute a total $31 million for infrastructure, parking land acquisition and site preparation, and the developers are set to pay the remaining construction and building costs.
The project has been in the works for years and made significant headway with the unveiling of the first design in the spring and a vote from the Historic Preservation Commission in September to allow demolition of the historic Birely Tannery building on the site. The vote gave the green light for the preferred design, which does not include the tannery.
Plans for preserving the elements of the site will come from the Maryland Historical Trust and Department of Housing and Community Development and will be incorporated into a memorandum of agreement with the city as part of the project plans.
Griffin said the organizations are set to host another meeting Tuesday similar to the one last month at which more mitigation details will be discussed. The invitation-only meetings are not open to the public.
FREDERICK, Md. (September 14, 2017) — With the City of Frederick Historic Preservation Commission’s (HPC) September 14 decision to allow demolition of the Birely Tannery building, design plans for the Downtown Hotel at Carroll Creek will move forward.
After holding four public workshops over the past couple of months, the HPC has agreed that the retention of the Birely Tannery building would be a deterrent to the construction of this major community improvement program, and that it would not be in the best interest of the majority of citizens to retain the structure.
Plamondon Hospitality Partners, the developer of the Downtown Hotel, does not take the building’s removal lightly, and plans to implement mitigation strategies in collaboration with the HPC, the Maryland Historical Trust (MHT) and the community.
"We know that the decision to allow removal of the historic Birely Tannery building was not an easy one for the Historic Preservation Commission,” said Peter Plamondon Jr. “That being said, our next steps will be to find the right way to tell the story of this site and Frederick’s tanning history, and develop a mitigation plan.”
The next public HPC workshop will take place on September 28, 2017 at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall, 101 North Court Street, Frederick. During this workshop, the developers will discuss the first part of the revised hotel design.
To stay updated on the Downtown Hotel and Conference Center, visit www.downtownhotelatcarrollcreek.com.
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August 31, 2017
Good evening Mr. Chairman and Commissioners. My name is John Fieseler and I am the Executive Director of the Tourism Council of Frederick County, speaking on behalf of the organization. Our offices are located at 151 S. East St., the Frederick Visitor Center, a 117-year old cannery warehouse whose renovation and adaptive re-use I had the privilege to oversee. I'll be heading home after tonight's meeting to sleep in the 220-year old log & stone tannery house that my wife and I have restored over the course of the last 27 years, thanks in part to knowledge gained early on at workshops held by the Historic District Commission in this very room: repairing horsehair plaster, six pane window sash, a shake roof, half-round gutter, etc.
I mention all this to highlight that it would not be in my nature to recommend that Tourism support a project that involves removing a historic structure without feeling that feasible alternatives had been explored and finding that the tremendous benefit from the public improvement that would replace it was warranted. I remember early-on wondering whether the building associated with the former Birely Tannery could possibly be used as a hotel restaurant or bar. I was pleased when I heard Pete Plamondon wonder the same thing, as did the hotel specialist with Jones Lang LaSalle, or JLL. I am happy that you now have had the chance to see, over many hours and several workshops, the multiple attempts to keep both historic structures in place and still fit in the hotel and meeting space that this community needs, before the team recognized the need to proceed with a plan that necessitates removal of the tannery building.
We at Tourism promote Frederick as "Hip & Historic." We interact with visitors every day. We hear that what they love about our community is that it is a thriving modern city set in an authentic historic town. It is not frozen in time, nor filled with fake old buildings, yet, thanks to your efforts, 21st century development is sympathetic to extant structures from the 18th or 19th century. We have come to appreciate just how important a healthy downtown economy is to maintaining our building stock. As we travel to other cities and towns, across the state and elsewhere, we find places with plenty of historic fabric that is not being maintained. While I've heard folks who want to grow their business vilified for pursuing personal enrichment, the reality is that old commercial buildings are not maintained when owners don't have the financial incentive to do so. I'd like to believe that our promotional efforts coupled with those of local merchants, restauranteurs, art venues, the Downtown Frederick Partnership and others all help drive the downtown economy that sustains and supports the care of our beautiful historic district. We are enthusiastic supporters of the Downtown Hotel & Conference Center because it will further strengthen that economy. We believe that this project is the next positive game changer for our community.
You have already been presented with the figures about the economic impact, the taxes that will be generated and the number of jobs that will be supported. I would like to speak a bit about those jobs. We have heard hotel jobs belittled by opponents of this project. A report analyzing Bureau of Labor Statistics data that was released this week validates what the US Travel Association has been reporting all year: the travel industry not only sustains small businesses and communities, but also creates American jobs that cannot be outsourced. In turn, these leisure & hospitality jobs give workers a first foothold on the job ladder and provide valuable, transferable skills that are indispensable to career success.
Plus, the data shows that leisure and hospitality employment recovered two years faster than the rest of the U.S. economy even though it was hit harder by the recession. The travel-dependent leisure and hospitality industry is the largest small-business employer in the United States, and small business sustains our historic downtown.
You may believe that a downtown hotel and conference center is a worthwhile project, but wonder whether this is the best site for it. We, at Tourism, do think that this is the best location for this project. A great many conferences are located in urban settings these days because attendees want to be able to walk from their meeting venue to great shops, restaurants, and attractions. This is especially true with millennials who have now become the largest segment in the American workforce. Yes ... meetings industry studies show they still see the value of face to face meetings. No, they don't necessarily want an organized welcome reception in a space off a hotel lobby, they want to be out together at a restaurant, brewery or distillery down the street.
In a report by "Meetings Mean Business," a conference industry-wide coalition, three quarters (75.6%) of people in all age groups surveyed indicated they are likely or highly likely to get 'out & about' when in a community for a meeting or exhibition, with Millennials the most likely to venture out at a combined 85.2%.
Communities that develop meeting facilities in distressed areas of town hoping they'll serve as a catalyst run into a big problem. Meeting planners will tour the shiny new center, but then look at boarded up buildings or vacant lots in the neighborhood and say "we're not bringing our people here." This site on Patrick Street and on Carroll Street puts guests right at our strong downtown commercial district and they will see it from the hotel, which is important. Likewise, and equally important, the site borders Carroll Creek Park which is increasingly an amenity about which our visitors ask. The substantial interaction of the hotel design along the length of the site's frontage on the Park is exactly the way abutting commercial development should align with and accentuate that amenity. Unfortunately, retention of the tannery building would be a significant deterrent to this major improvement project and the substantial benefits it will bring to Frederick. Also, this site allows easy access for arriving vehicles who will park less than a block off the entrance gateway from the interstate and not have to drive further into our downtown. Visitors can be on foot to explore ... and that foot traffic will help sustain the variety of shops and restaurants that local residents get to enjoy, which is already a greater variety than what local resident spending alone could support.
We are very excited about the planned restoration of the 110-year old Hagerstown & Frederick Railway terminal building. Ever since I got to Frederick in the late 70's and realized why those bricks around the front door of the Frederick News Post building were a different color ... because interurban trolley cars used to enter the building there, I've thought that it would be great to see that large opening restored. I've been to conferences in recent years where full service downtown hotels incorporate a former department store, such as the Marriott's in Lancaster and in Louisville, or a former newspaper such as the Westin in Montreal, and it is great to see how the heritage of the former uses gets shared with visitors today because of the adaptive reuse.
We do some interpretation now of Frederick's history in the tanning industry. There are a couple of panels about the industrial area in the southeast part of the City, including the Birely Tannery, at the front door of our Visitor Center, as well as a panel on a wayfinding kiosk on Carroll Creek Park that we worked on with the Downtown Frederick Partnership and the City. We think there is a potential to do so much more with the hotel project to share the story of the "trolley system that grew into an electric utility," the tanning industry, mills, canneries and manufacturers in the surrounding neighborhood. A few years ago we produced illustrated panels that hang inside Brewers Alley—one at the bar and one in a banquet room upstairs—that tell the story of the 1864 ransom of Frederick paid at the building that was formerly on that site. A whole lot more people now learn about that chapter of Frederick's history because they've come in for a meal or a beverage. Interpretation at a thriving hotel can expose our industrial heritage to thousands of people who otherwise may not have sought it out.
Finally, there has been the suggestion that the proposed hotel is too large and couldn't possibly induce another 50,000 room nights of annual hotel demand, so would cannibalize the local market. That one is easy to dispel as our two newest Frederick area hotels opened within four months of each other in the fall of 2015, adding a combined 239 hotel rooms to the market in a short period of time. Within the next year, 56,000 more hotel room nights were booked for a total of almost 581,000 in the market, and the average occupancy rate for the county had returned to where it was before the supply grew by more rooms than the Downtown hotel will add ... meaning the preexisting hotels were renting the same percentage of their rooms as they had before the new hotels opened. What's more, the proposed full service Marriott will give us our first property in the County that is in a category that we currently don't have .... what's known in the industry as Upper Upscale, where you'd find Hiltons, Hyatts, Marriotts and Wyndhams, among others. These are not Luxury properties like Ritz Carlton or Four Seasons. We have none of those, but also none of the next category down. This hotel will be our first and allow us to attract overnight visitors that currently pass us by. It will be great to not only induce that new demand, but also to do so in our beautiful downtown that historically was where Frederick hotels were located. This is the right project and the right location. We respectfully request your approval of the demolition request to allow it to happen.
Original Published August 26, 2017
Frederick News-Post
By Mallory Panuska mpanuska@newspost.com
Historic Preservation Commission Chairman Dan Lawton hopes members will be ready to vote after one more workshop on whether to allow demolition of the historic Birely Tannery building for construction of the proposed downtown hotel and conference center.
The commissioners held their third workshop Thursday on the request, which stems from plans to develop the project at 200-212 E. Patrick St. The commissioners determined in July that the early 20th Century brick tannery building and surrounding archaeological site are contributing resources to the Frederick Town Historic District, thus halting immediate demolition plans.
The developers, architects and other project partners are tasked with proving demolition of the tannery is the only logical way to construct the hotel at that site and that possible alternatives to preservation have been exhausted. They must also provide an alternative plan for preserving the historic elements of the site.
Representatives with developer Plamondon Hospitality Partners, architects Peter Fillat Architects and Bates Architects, and Richard Griffin, the city’s director of economic development, presented details of how they arrived at the decision to demolish the tannery, as well other alternatives that were considered and details about what actually exists at the site today during Thursday’s workshop.
Peter Fillat, principal of Peter Fillat architects, and Jim Mills, an architect with Bates Architects, went step-by-step through the four design options they considered, two of which kept the tannery building in place. In both, the project would lose vital parking spaces, they said.
In the preferred design, the tannery building is demolished and the site is used for parking. The project officials assured the historic elements of the site will be adequately preserved and promised to work through the process with the public and preservationists as the plans move forward.
The preferred design also includes full renovation of the historic Frederick Trolley building, which later housed the Frederick News-Post for many years. Pete Plamondon Jr., co-president of Plamondon Hospitality Partners, said he is excited about the renovation plans and looks forward to further discussing the details.
Several members of the public also spoke during Thursday’s workshop. They included several people who have consistently opposed the tannery’s demolition because of its historic significance as what has been reported the last existing tannery building in the state. Several have also expressed fear that the city is on its way to becoming an undesired commercial hub with no history left. Others included Sen. Ron Young, who is a former alderman and the mayor who championed the Carroll Creek flood control project. Young told the commission that the tannery building would be “detrimental to the hotel” and would not work in its current spot.
The commission scheduled a special workshop for 6 p.m. Thursday to continue discussing the project and demolition request details. Plamondon said he and his partners plan to focus on the design and community benefit and impact of the project during the next workshop.
Lawton said he hopes the commissioners will be able to vote after that.
“After the rest of tonight and next week hope I hope to move toward a vote on demolition,” Lawton said Thursday. “That does not mean more work does not need done on the design. I just hope to keep discussions mostly to [demolition] until we get to that plan.”
The current design proposes a hotel with four floors and 180 rooms, roughly 20,000 square feet of rentable meeting space, and about 160 underground public parking spaces.
Aldermen to vote on Mt. Olivet rezoning at next public hearing
The rezoning of a portion of land inside Mt. Olivet Cemetery for a residential project is going before the Board of Aldermen at its first September meeting.
The request to remove an institutional floating zone from a 12.74-acre portion of unused land inside the cemetery at 515 S. Market St. is the first step toward the eventual construction of roughly 90 town houses and a senior living facility on about 20 vacant acres at the edge of the cemetery.
The city’s Planning Commission voted in a unanimous 5-0 majority in July to make a positive recommendation to the board to approve it and the aldermen held a workshop at the beginning of August to discuss the details. The elected officials seemed to come to a consensus by the end of the workshop after asking some questions about traffic and the land’s original medium residential zoning. They are set to cast their final votes at the Sept. 7 public hearing.
Several neighbors have opposed the project, citing concerns about increased traffic and density if the land is developed as proposed. Several have also said they plan to continue coming to the meetings where the project is discussed and voicing their concerns.
According to the plans, the developer intends to purchase a total of about 20 acres and has applied to remove the institutional zone on the 12.74 acres to build the town homes. The senior living building is planned for the additional 8 acres close to Interstate 70 and will keep the institutional floating zone. Developers have said the senior housing facility will be marketed to senior citizens making 60 percent of the average median income.
The cemetery dates back to the 1850s and contains roughly 150,000 graves. Historical claims to fame include the final resting place of Frederick resident and Star Spangled Banner Composer Francis Scott Key and a “Confederate Row,” where 700 Southern casualties of the American Civil War are buried.
