Proposed $125M Rittenhouse area hotel ditched for Hyatt

The plan to bring a $125 million boutique hotel in the Rittenhouse Square area has been dropped in order to bring another Hyatt product into Philadelphia's hotel market.

The property at 17th and Chancellor streets, previously set to become a 12-story, 300-room Hudson hotel project that was given the OK from the Center City Residents Association, or CCRA, has now been proposed to become a Hyatt Centric hotel.

A Hyatt hotel will be coming to 17th and Chancellor streets. Little Pete's, pictured, will have to relocate.

Chancellor Hotel Associates informed City Council at a public hearing on Wednesday.

"We are enthusiastically non-opposed," Charles Goodwin, president of the CCRA, told the Philadelphia Business Journal of the Hyatt project.

The hotel will be constructed on a site where a four-story parking garage now stands.

Little Pete's diner, in the retail portion of the parking structure, will have to search for another location, Goodwin said.

"We can't make a policy to preserve particular businesses," he said. "It'd be good to see some attention paid to transitions for those who may be displaced."

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The Hudson hotel was planned to have a rooftop restaurant, underground parking and retail space.

The Hyatt Centric will be the second Hyatt hotel in Philadelphia's inventory along with Hyatt at the Bellevue on Broad Street.

The 348-room Hyatt on Penn's Landing, earlier this year, was rebranded as a full-service Hilton hotel called Hilton Philadelphia at Penn's Landing.

The lifestyle brand Hyatt Centric, by Hyatt Hotels Corp. (NYSE: H), was introduced in late January, becoming the sixth brand Hyatt has introduced since 2006, according to the company.

"The Hyatt Centric name was inspired by the brand’s mission of putting its guest at the center of the action in the best destinations," Hyatt said in January.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal