Public hearing on proposed Hatfield hotel continues to later date

May 9, 2023 | Ryan Feyre
rfeyre@thereminder.com

HATFIELD — A public hearing for a proposed three-story hotel on 16 West St. will continue at a future meeting so the Planning Board can determine exact legal stipulations for the project.

The board has a 90-day window to approve the project, which means the Planning Board hopes to vote on the project either at a special meeting or their next scheduled monthly meeting on June 7 — whichever allows them to stay within that 90-day window. As of press time, the date was not determined yet.

Background

According to the proposal, Kirit Patel of Shield Hotels is seeking a special permit with site plan approval from the Planning Board to build this three-story hotel with a size of 6,200 square feet per floor and about 35 guest rooms.

The proposed hotel, which was introduced early last year, is also expected to house 20 self-storage units located in two buildings on either side of the property.

During the hearing in March, Jeff Squire — a principal land architect from Berkshire Design Group who spoke on behalf of Patel — noted how the existing structure on 16 West St. was originally constructed as the Howard Johnson Ice Cream Shop and Grille and more recently was used as office space.

The site, a small distance from Exit 27 off Interstate 91, is located between Pioneer Valley Indoor Karting to the south and the Hatfield Inn motor lodge to the north. The existing parcel holistically is around 60,000 square feet, according to Squire, and the hope is to build the hotel where the existing building is.

“The parking lot and the expansive pavement have been shrunk a bit because there’s a lot of unusable and unnecessary space out there now with the way the parking lot is set up,” said Squire, who added that there will be 38 spaces provided on the site for the project.

May 3 meeting

While the majority of the public who spoke at that March meeting were in favor of the project, the Planning Board asked the applicant to have more lights on the property.

The board also asked for the building to look “more like Hatfield” and less “Like a concrete block.”

During a presentation at the May 3 meeting, Doug Serrill — the landscape designer at Berkshire Design — said that additional lighting was added in the parking lot for security purposes, while other lights were added around the building.

Other subtle architectural changes were made to the building to fit in more with the rest of the town’s landscape, including a pitched roof instead of a flat roof. The plan itself, however, generally stayed the same.

Although Patel explained in March that most people will probably use the hotel for an overnight stay, a few members of the public raised concerns about the idea of an extended stay at the hotel, and whether the hotel would draw enough people to Hatfield.

“I think the hotel is a fine idea if on the surface that’s what it shakes out to be,” said Peter Langlois, who owns Smithsonian Chowder House on 1 West St. “But, is there that kind of demand for that kind of a unit in that section seeing as we’re not really a tourist attraction on Route 5 in Hatfield.”

Because the proposed hotel would be near the highway, Patel said he believes that it will draw tourists since the location is surrounded by the five colleges in Hampshire County.

“We want to build this as a boutique hotel,” Patel said. “I’ve lived 30-40 years in this town…we have maximum tourism in Western Massachusetts.”

Patel said a stipulation limiting the number of days people can stay would not work for his business since some people normally request to stay for up to six months as part of a business trip, while others like professors may want to stay for a whole semester while they are teaching.

“I cannot lose that business,” Patel said. “We need that business [otherwise] I’m going to go bankrupt.”
Shield Hotels is a hotel development and management company that provides professional services to a collection of hotels in the New England area and beyond. Their current properties in the area include the Courtyard in West Springfield, the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Holyoke, the Hampton Inn in Westfield and the Quality Inn & Suites in Northampton.

To determine next steps, the Planning Board said they will talk with their lawyer before the next meeting to find out what they can do legally for stipulations or conditions on a special permit regarding extended stay, which will then help them determine if any conditions need to be made.

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