Acontroversial riverfront hotel project in Astoria is waiting on a verdict from the state after developers failed to land a permit extension from the city, but two other hotel projects are moving forward.

Both are located in zones where hotels are allowed as an outright use: a large Hilton-brand hotel at the base of the South Slope and a smaller hotel behind Fort George Brewery downtown.

A local property development group, Rose Tree LLC, which also owns the former Home Bakery building in Uppertown, plans to turn the former Angel Medical building on 15th Street behind Fort George into a 13-room hotel.

Neighbors of the yet unnamed hotel include the brewery, a dental office, Coast Community Radio, a bed-and-breakfast, residential homes and a massive rhododendron that rears up at the edge of the property.

Larry Bensel, of Rose Tree LLC, hopes to start remodel work in November and have the hotel open in time for the peak tourism season next year.

Bensel briefly considered turning the building into a rehab center — an easier switch than a hotel because it would have been considered a similar use to what had existed before. But, he said, “I didn’t want to be the guy that put a drug rehab center downtown.”

A hotel seemed like a better fit for the neighborhood. He does not expect it to draw the same criticism as the four-story, 66-room Fairfield Inn and Suites proposed by Hollander Hospitality at the site of the former Ship Inn restaurant on the waterfront.

“It’s a cute enough, small enough property and project,” Bensel said of his hotel proposal. “All it’s going to do is improve the area.”

Rose Tree LLC does not plan to knock down the medical building, only remodel it, Bensel noted. The building is located in zoning that allows for lodging. City staff will review plans, but the plans do not need to be vetted by city boards in public hearings.

Bensel is courting the global hotel and hostel company Selina to manage the property once the medical building is remodeled. Selina took over management of the Commodore Hotel on 14th Street after developer Joe Barnes purchased the building that houses the hotel and Street 14 Cafe in 2019.

The biggest challenges the 15th street hotel project faces is finding enough parking spaces to meet city requirements and fitting in a trash enclosure. All surmountable, Bensel said.

Home2 Suites

Meanwhile, plans for a much larger hotel on the South Slope are still progressing despite no physical changes at the building site itself yet.

Astoria Hotel Investors, a Kansas City, Missouri-based development group, plans to build a four-story, 90-room Hilton-brand hotel at the site of the former Bayside Sentry Market. Discussions about building a hotel on the property have been ongoing since 2018, but developer John Ferguson, a partner with Astoria Hotel Investors, has given several different hoped-for starting dates over the years.

One cause for the delay is that developers are considering shifting from a wooden framework to steel. They are concerned about both the cost of timber and ongoing supply chain issues tied to the pandemic, Ferguson said.

The city is also requiring Astoria Hotel Investors to upgrade a waterline to the site to meet fire code requirements for lodging businesses, negotiations that have slowed progress on the project.

There have been several waterline upgrade requirements put on other hotels in Astoria recently, including the Bowline, a boutique hotel in a repurposed seafood processing plant along the Columbia River, according to city engineer Nathan Crater. That hotel, which opened this summer, was one of the few hotel proposals in Astoria in recent years not to experience major pushback from residents who feel the city has enough hotels.

“We would definitely like to get started ASAP,” Ferguson said. “It’s in our best interest to get started. … Please be assured we are definitely moving forward on this thing.”

As it is designed now, the Home2 Suites hotel will be built on the land, but the developers also own acreage that extends out into Youngs Bay. At the start of the project, they said they did not have an interest in building over the water.

“If the market were to get better, we obviously have that 11 acres out in the bay,” Ferguson told The Astorian. “That’s always something we could look at for sure, but it would be later on.”

Fairfield Inn

Next to the Astoria Riverwalk on the other side of the hill, the former Ship Inn restaurant still stands and the Fairfield Inn and Suites remains an architectural rendering rather than a reality.

Hollander Hospitality had oral arguments in front of the state Land Use Board of Appeals earlier this month after the city denied a one-year permit extension.

When it was first proposed, the Fairfield project prompted fierce public backlash and renewed interest in developing stricter city code amendments to guide how waterfront properties are developed.

After numerous contentious public hearings throughout 2018, a major plan revision and an appeal to the City Council, developer Mark Hollander received approval for the project at the end of 2018. Then the property sat.

In 2020, Hollander applied for a one-year permit extension. He argued that the pandemic made it impossible to get necessary financing to begin work on the hotel. His appeal was shot down. He appealed to the state, which sent the matter back the city. When Hollander applied for an extension again this year, he was denied again.

The City Council said Hollander was using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse and had simply dragged his feet on the project. Hollander appealed the matter to the state. The hotelier has argued the city is not able to pass judgment on any motives for asking for the extension.

Hollander declined to comment on the appeal or any plans he might have for land near the Astoria Bridge that he leases from the Port of Astoria, land where he could build another large hotel.

The Home2 Suites and 15th Street hotel projects are in motion as visitor numbers remain strong despite the pandemic and, in many cases, because of it.

Hotels, which suffered early in 2020 amid local shutdowns and statewide restrictions, have seen visitors return. On posts to rental groups on Facebook, people reported trouble finding a room for the night as they passed through Astoria. State campsites were booked and beaches were busy.

It hasn’t just been tourists in need of a place to stay, Bensel said.

Business has been brisk for many contractors, as well. When those contractors come from out of the area for a job, they often need hotel rooms. Bensel recently had a crew out for painting work. There were no hotel rooms available for them.