Details have been revealed on the Colesville Road Hilton/Hampton Inn/Homewood Suites. Above are two images from the Montgomery County Park and Planning Site Plan Review, showing the before and after of the transformation that is to take place.

The 8728 Colesville Road is an unoccupied 60’s era office building also known as the Jemal building. The 13 story building was taken out the Silver Spring office market inventory.

A New York City developer by the name of Gene Kaufman wants to completely rehabilitate the building into a Hilton/Hampton Inn/Homewood Suites. A total of 276 rooms are allowed but the developer wants to split floors 2 through 8 as a 149 room Hampton Inn and floors 9 through 13 will become a 90 room Homewood Suites. Shared parking at the adjacent Montgomery County garage is proposed.

This would be would be Silver Spring’s second new hotel to come online since the Courtyard Marriot opened in 2005. Reports say the last Hotel to open in downtown was 30 years before.

An exposed glass atrium piece at the main drop off allows you see below into the hotel swimming deck. From the site plan review,

A central feature of the landscape is the driveway’s central island. This oval area is dominated by a sculptural glass skylight that sits above the cellar swimming pool area. The paving in this area is of rough granite cobbles and the glasswork is protected by large irregular granite bollards. Between the cobbles and skylight is a band of grass-like groundcover. An etched and illuminated glass sign completes the interior island. Another interesting feature of the site is the treatment of the existing retaining wall along the southern property line. The applicant proposes to treat the wall surface to complement the hotel surface and install a “green wall”, which is a trellis system for flowering vines. Interspersed throughout these trellis panels will be blank areas for the placement of artwork and decoration.

While it’s good to see an adaptive reuse of an old abandoned office building, this may be the last economy to average hotel Silver Spring can absorb, I think Silver Spring will have had it’s fill at that point. There may be demand for economy to average brands like Hilton/Hampton Inn/Homewood Suites at the moment but isn’t it time for a higher class hotel brand in the CBD? Hasn’t Silver Spring disproved perception time and time again?

Perhaps I’m jumping the gun but Discovery wont even house guests in Silver Spring because there is nothing good enough available. Nobody is asking for a Ritz-Carlton or Four Seasons but what about a Sheraton, Westin, Marriott? Besides the fact that their corporate headquarters is in Bethesda, Marriott hasn’t opened a Ritz Carlton or any other four star hotel in the second wealthiest state in the country, not even in downtown Bethesda. They have maintained a Ritz-Carlton in Tysons Corner and Pentagon City. Some corporate neighbor huh? The closest coming is a Ritz-Carlton Residences in downtown Baltimore but that’s for sale condos not a hotel.

According to the Mobil Travel Guide, Silver Spring has 0 rated and recommended hotels. As far as I know hotels and motels in Silver Spring include,

• Courtyard Marriott
• Crowne Plaza Hotel
• Hilton
• Ramada Inn
• Days Inn/Travel Lodge

Also proposed by Foulger Pratt is another average-at-best hotel at the Silver Spring Transit Center Project. Despite what’s already here Foulger intends to aim for lackluster, average Homewood suites type hotel project.

Thanks to woodsider for the heads up!

Projects Details

Developer: Metro DC Hotel LLC c/o Kaufman ArchitectsGene Kaufman 525 Broadway, 8th FloorNew York, NY 10012(212) 625-8700

Development Type: Hotel

Height: 121.5 feet

Square footage: 142,212

Rooms: 239-240, Maximum 276

Meeting Space: 10,000 sq\ft

Parking: Off Site