The redevelopment of River Street’s east end can now commence.
The Savannah Historic District Board of Review approved plans Wednesday for a hotel to be built on the former Georgia Power Headquarters site. The 162-room hotel, to be located on the north side of River Street next to the Georgia Power office building, is part of a larger hotel/retail complex planned by North Point Hospitality.
The project will include a second hotel, a parking garage and two retail buildings along the riverfront. The Historic Review Board has approved a general development plan for the complex but has yet to review design plans for the individual buildings.
The board deemed the hotel approved Wednesday a good start.
“It will be a landmark building,” board member Reed Engle said of the hotel. “It’s interesting.”
Historic Review Board approval allows North Point to secure building permits from the City of Savannah and begin construction. North Point representatives are still working through infrastructure improvement issues with the city but anticipate construction to be underway by the end of the year.
North Point has targeted a February 2015 opening date.
The hotel will stand eight stories and feature a tower topped with a lantern on its corner near the River Street-Bay Street intersection.
The flower-shaped tower will provide a visual landmark for motorists and pedestrians approaching from Bay Street and General McIntosh Boulevard. The element was widely lauded by the review board and public commenters.
Historic Savannah Foundation CEO Daniel Carey told the board he likes the tower but noted it resembled a “juicer.”
The hotel will be topped with a rooftop garden and solar panels and will be the first new downtown building to incorporate a sustainable roof.
“Green” roofs are one of several design elements that developers can utilize to gain an additional story beyond the limits of the Historic District height map. Other designed elements utilized elsewhere downtown include the use of high-quality building materials and the incorporation of retail spaces at street level.
“The city is glad to see a developer take advantage of the sustainable roof incentive,” city of Savannah spokesman Bret Bell said.
The project’s architect, Pat Shay, credited the city for working with North Point on the rooftop plan.
“Not only will it be in beautiful from day one, but it will be beautiful forever,” Shay said.
The hotel approval comes a year after North Point revealed its plans to redevelop the Georgia Power site. The nearly four-acre piece of property flanks River Street and stretches from the East Broad Street ramp and Morrell Park to the Savannah Marriott Riverfront.
The project has polarized the community from the start.
North Point successfully petitioned Savannah City Council to amend the Historic District height map in order to build the second hotel, to be located along the waterfront, to seven stories. The map previously restricted waterfront structures along River Street to two stories.
The site plan also caused angst. The property is currently a mix of greenspace and a surface parking lot, and adding seven new buildings to the site stirred concerns about pedestrian views of the Savannah River.
North Point assuaged those fears by altering the site plan, replacing four small retail buildings along the waterfront with two larger ones. Historic Review Board approval of the general development plan led to North Point’s purchase of the property to close a few days later.
Board votes against conflict-of-interest bylaw change
A three-month debate over the appropriateness of Savannah Historic District Board of Review members presenting petitions to the board ended Wednesday in a special-called meeting.
The board voted against changing its bylaws to allow members, specifically architects serving on the board, to recuse themselves during meeting in order to represent clients in presenting projects for review. The issue was raised earlier this year by board member Jerry Lominack, whose firm Lominack Kolman Smith Architects does work downtown.
Other board members expressed concerns that allowing board members to present petitions represented a conflict of interest. The board discussed several options and potential compromises at the April and May meetings.
The Historic Review Board called on City of Savannah Attorney Brooks Stillwell’s legal expertise is Wednesday’s special meeting. Stillwell’s review of the issue led to his concluding “that no Board member should present an application at a public hearing before the Board on which such member serves.”
The meeting ended with the board voting down an amendment of the bylaws, with two of the board’s three practicing architects, Lominack and Marjorie Reed, voting in favor of the change along with Keith Howington, a project manager for Greenline Architecture.