ALAMEDA — Plans are underway to build a 96-room hotel about a block from the Park Street Bridge on a site that once housed an auto dealership and is now a scooter store.
The four-story hotel, which would be at 1825 Park St. at Clement Avenue, would operate under the Holiday Inn Express brand.
Just 63 parking spaces are proposed, despite a city requirement that a space be provided for each hotel room. That means the Planning Board must sign off on the lower number for the project to go forward, said City Planner Linda Barrera.
In a bid to sidestep the requirement, the applicant — Ganesha LLC — is proposing a complimentary shuttle that would take guests to and from locations within a 3-mile radius of the hotel, such as Oakland International Airport, the Fruitvale BART station and Alameda’s ferry terminals.
The site at Park Street and Clement Avenue, which is near Interstate 880 and the Oakland Estuary, is part of a city “gateway” district onto the Island, which prompted Planning Board president David Mitchell to question whether a hotel was the best use for the 31,900-square-foot property.
“I just don’t know if this particular lot lends itself to this size hotel with a parking variance,” Mitchell said when the board hosted a March 26 study session on the project.
Board member Sandy Sullivan echoed that concern.
“Basically, this hotel takes up a big chunk of space and does nothing for city residents, offers nothing except a tax base,” Sullivan said.
The board took no formal action during the study session, but weighed in on the hotel’s proposed “Streamline Moderne” architectural style and on the parking, which would be behind the hotel and which guests would enter via Clement Avenue.
The architectural style was picked because it is rooted in the auto industry of the 1930s and ’40s and reflects the neighborhood’s history as an auto row, Barrera said.
Board member Kristopher Koster suggested the hotel possibly could include a wine bar that the public could patronize and that the rear entrance from the parking lot could be enhanced because that would be where most guests would arrive.
“With some slight tweaks, this could be a really great project,” said Koster, adding that the city needs hotels.
Board member Ron Curtis noted that the neighborhood has few parking spaces to offset any overflow from the hotel and that its staff would need to underscore that parking is limited when booking guests.
“Other than that, you are going to have a situation of a lot of battles between competing people over the overflow of cars,” Curtis said. “And I think that will create a problem.”
The current proposal calls for a rounded building corner at Park Street and Clement Avenue, ground floor “storefront” windows at the lobby and a large exterior overhang on the fourth floor.
Christopher Buckley of the Alameda Architectural Preservation Society liked the hotel’s design but said its rounded corner feature and other elements should be enhanced.
“With some work, this project could truly be a landmark building,” Buckley said.
City officials are expected to come back to the board within the next few months with a study on the proposed parking at the hotel, as well as a revised architectural plan.