Berkeleyan
Development team named for proposed hotel
| 17 March 2004
Following a competition that lasted several months, the university has selected a firm to develop a hotel and conference center adjacent to the Berkeley campus.
Carpenter & Company Inc. and the campus have entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement, and the firm will conduct a six-month feasibility study of the proposed project at the corner of Center Street and Shattuck Avenue.
Based in San Francisco and Cambridge, Mass., Carpenter will work with the campus, the city, and the Berkeley community to design the hotel project to complement the possible development of new space for the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive and the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology.
The company, a spokesman said, also will work with the city and community to ensure the that project is environmentally sensitive, pedestrian-friendly, and a good fit with the downtown arts district.
“This project has the potential to be a showcase project that will help bring excitement and vitality to our downtown,” said Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates. “I am pleased that an experienced developer team is on board.”
The hotel would feature 175 to 200 rooms, conference space ranging from 10,000 to 20,000 square feet, and parking. The developer has expressed an interest in adding some housing to the project.
Need for a conference center near campus was confirmed in market studies completed by the Berkeley Conference and Business Bureau in 1998 and in additional study last summer.