IF THEY BUILD IT, WILL THEY COME?

COUNCIL APPROVES 30 STORY HOTEL

Hoteliers Victor and Carmen Menechella will be allowed to build one of the Fallsview area's densest hotels despite the objections of the city's planning department and its next-door neighbour. "As it sits here, I think it's not a bad idea. It's a smart idea and it fits nicely," Coun. Jim Diodati said moments before councillors voted 5-2 Monday to give the Menechellas the green light to build a new Hampton Inn at 6505 Fallsview Blvd. They also own the nearby Embassy Suites hotel. City council gave them the green light to build a 30-storey, 383-room hotel, north of Dixon Street on a site that's less than a half-acre. Previous zoning would have allowed only a four-storey structure. City planner Doug Darbyson told council the proposal was more dense than any other hotel in the city, did not have adequate setbacks from the road and would create wind conditions that would be "uncomfortable" for pedestrians in the area. "The proposal significantly exceeds the density of other developments in the tourist area and represents an overdevelopment of the site," Darbyson's report to council states. At a density of 910 rooms per acre, the Hampton would be more dense than the Embassy Suites, which has 400 rooms an acre, Darbyson said. "We have not really seen density of this magnitude in our city on such small pieces of land," he said. The hotel is expected to create 2,000 construction jobs, 500 permanent hotel jobs and "impressive perpetual tax revenue" for the city, said Italia Gilberti, the lawyer for the Menechellas. She reminded council its development guidelines are only guidelines. Because of the size of the property - a portion of a triangular area bordered by Fallsview Boulevard, Dixon Street and Main Street - it would be difficult to build anything on it that adheres to city guidelines. "This is exactly where this type of development should be built and is needed," Gilberti said. The Hampton Inn would represent an investment of between $50 million and $100 million, Gilberti said. The Menechellas are ready to build immediately and construction could take a year and a half, she added. "This one's extremely expensive," she said after the meeting, adding the franchise sets high standards for its hotels. "The location calls for something special." Approving the hotel project went against the city's development guidelines for the tourist area, said Coun. Janice Wing, one of two votes against the project. "This could set an undesirable precedent for future developments," Wing said. Peter Pickfield, a lawyer for Helias Enterprises said the Hampton project threatened the viability of a project his clients were planning to the south. "It doesn't comply with the rules of the game, here," he said. "There needs to be something done to integrate these two developments." Pickfield could not convince council to turn it down or at least to wait for six weeks while Helias Enterprises studied the impact of the Hampton. "This is really cramming a building in to get the maximum number of hotel units in and using not good planning to do it," Pickfield said.