Plans advance for 310-room hotel at 17th & Chancellor

The Planning Commission voted unanimously on Tuesday to recommend a bill that would allow a Hudson Hotel to be built at 17th and Chancellor streets in Center City. The hotel would be built on a property that now holds a parking garage and the iconic diner Little Pete’s.

The bill would amend the zoning regulations on the property to allow the hotel to be built without going to the zoning board. Ian Litwin, a staff member for the Planning Commission, said that the bill was more akin to a corrective rezoning than a spot zoning ordinance; the Planning Commission is considering changes to the zoning category the property sits in that would allow denser developments, and the area will be undergoing remapping as part of the citywide planning process.

It was the Planning Commission that first met with the hotel development team, Clemens Construction, and recommended that Councilman Kenyatta Johnson introduce the rezoning ordinance, according to Litwin, the Central District city planner.

The hotel will contain two floors of retail space, 310 hotel rooms, a 175-space valet parking garage, and a restaurant on the top floor open to the public. It will be 13 stories in all, with an entrance on Chancellor Street. Celebrated Philadelphia chef Marc Vetri is opening a second location of his pizzeria on Chancellor, across the street from the proposed entrance to the Hudson Hotel.

David Schultz, an architect with DAS, which is designing the building, said the property would be a “3-star hotel,” more affordable than the most high-end properties. The original Hudson Hotel is in New York, and there is another in the works in London, according to Schultz.

The bill is scheduled for a hearing before Council’s Rules Committee on Dec. 2 at 10 a.m.

Source: Philly.com