More musings on the Hill-hotel

The Herald-Sun and N&O both have pieces running today on the Hill building conversion to a boutique hotel. 

Interestingly, WRAL's home page has nothing, zip, nada about the piece in their "News" section, which most visitors gravitate towards since stories are on the home page.  No, you have to dig down to the "Business" section to see the story.  Of course, I don't think WRAL reported on the groundbreaking of the Durham Performing Arts Center in late 2006, either, despite the fact that, er, they have massive commercial real estate and sports interests next door and they're sponsoring the DBAC plaza's naming rights.  Well, thanks for proving Capitol Broadcasting isolates its news and business interests (a good thing), which means 'RAL can go right on proliferating scare-mongering stories about 'thugs and drugs' in Durham (a bad thing.) 

Anyhow, pressing obligations this morning prevent me from making any really detailed comments on the Hill project, and in any case, the local news media (those that cover the story) are doing a fine job.  Just a few thoughts below the cut...

• All the coverage is addressing the elephant-in-the-room question: with the Marriott next door, what is the impact of adding 50% more hotel capacity next door?  I haven't seen any occupancy numbers on the Marriott, but the CVB has complained in the past that the dearth of hotel rooms in the downtown core makes it hard to draw larger meetings.  Still... from a branding perspective, I think there's a tough line to walk here.  A boutique hotel in an historic building may still be a perfectly fine choice for a business traveler going to a convention, particularly if the room rate is just a bit higher than the going Marriott rate.  (Check out the historic Dunhill Hotel in Charlotte for one example.) 
     
  At the same time, if you want to position this as a spa/wellness center as well... that will tend to draw a different customer base.  You've got the "lobby problem" of how you blend two different types of customers entering the building, each with their own expectations of what the hotel/resort will be, and some of that initial impression depends on whether you see other customers there for the same purpose as you.  Making it tougher is the fact that Lifestyle/Greenfire will be using a local branding rather than putting this under the umbrella of a national brand that could help signal the hotel's meaning.  (A perfect example of that is the Fairmont hotelier brand, whose Canadian properties nicely blend business and spa travel.)
      
  
• All the branding issues aside, the adaptive re-use of the Hill building for a boutique hotel is brilliant from a retrofit perspective.  There's a reason that Greenfire got away with spending just $4.1 million on the Hill building: it's an old structure whose construction, ceilings, and the like made it difficult to use as modern Class A office space... which is why SunTrust is now down the street in a 1990s-vintage structure.  While this is a drawback for commercial uses, for a hotel it's a great fit.  After all, most boutique hotels are bringing in customers looking for a unique experience, and staying in such a beautiful old tower with a great view of the Bull City is going to be attraction enough.  Plus, nice furnishings, wallpaper, etc. can make up for the cramped constraints of a Depression-era tower very well.
  
  
• Am I the only person amused that Starwood's new "Aloft" hotel concept -- featuring funky loft ceilings, cork floors, high-art furnishings, and other boutique-hotel concepts -- spurned both downtown Durham and downtown Raleigh to end up plunking their oozing pile o' hipness in a new-construction shell Morrisville on Aviation Parkway... while downtown Durham is getting an authentic spa/hotel that's a wonderful adaptive re-use of a historic structure.  We don't need your stinkin' faux-creative; we got our own, real creative right here.
  

• If this project takes off, I would expect to see Rue Cler and Piedmont get some company real soon.  It's already tough to get into these restaurants in the evening, particularly on weekends.  Now let's add up to 110 new downtown visitors a night, plus day-visitors to the spa?  Excellent.
  
  
• Conventions aside... the nexus of the Performing Arts Center, DBAP, Brightleaf, and the Carolina Theater really provide some really interesting opportunities to come to Durham, stay downtown, and spend a weekend walking and exploring.  This is definitely not something to have been expected five years ago here. 


• If I have any disappointment in the project, it's that the SunTrust logo will stay on top of the building.  I'd love to see the CCB letters return (who wouldn't?), but heck, with the hotel going for a local branding, it'd be good to see whatever that name is plastered atop the 17-story tower.


• Can we please now do something about the "We Want Oprah" building next door... the old Washington Duke Motel?
  
  Pretty please?

Comments

[Valerie]

Why do they want Oprah? What do they want her to do?

[Bull City Rising]

Ah, Valerie, you have dared to ask one of the age-old Durham questions. Why, indeed, do the Sturdivants want Oprah to come to the Bull City so, so badly?

My guesses:

1) "Oh Oprah, could you do an extreme makeover on our run-down downtown eyesore? Wait, wrong TV show. We want Ty!"

2) "Hey Oprah, why don't you open up a school in the old hotel we're letting disintegrate over on Chapel Hill St.? We already park school buses in the back lot there, it'd be perfect."

3) "Hey Oprah, could you invite us to be in the audience the next you're going to be giving away cars? Please?"