The lot next to Jerry’s Subs and Pizza Shop and adjacent to Paint Branch creek has been earmarked for the construction of a planned Hilton Hotel.
A development company that has brought several projects to the city wants to put a Hilton Hotel just outside the main entrance to the campus, where Jerry’s Subs and Pizza and the former site of Alario’s Pizza currently sit.
Mark Vogel, owner of Mark Vogel Companies, said he wants to bring an upscale hotel to a city currently occupied by lower-scale hotels and motels.
“My proffer, my pledge is that the site will be an upscale hotel,” he said.
Ten other hotels call College Park’s Route 1 home, but despite the quantity of hotels and motels, occupancy rates in the city have risen steadily since the early 1990s. In 1994, College Park’s hotels had a 51 percent annual occupancy rate, and by 2001 it rose to 71 percent.
The rising rates paint a positive picture of the city’s hotel market, said Claire Sale, College Park’s economic development coordinator.
“I think the Route 1 sector needs a high-end hotel,” said Vipul Patel, owner and manager of the College Park Motel.
The luxury hotel would improve quality and lower rates for customers through competition, said Lawrence Fitzgerald, front desk attendant at the College Park Quality Inn.
“A Hilton will definitely outshine us when it comes to getting business,” said Clare Erslev, a front desk associate at the College Park Hampton Inn, a subsidiary of Hilton hotels.
The hotel is a destination for many business travelers, she said. However, she anticipates they will choose a Hilton over a Hampton Inn, which will hurt her hotel.
Vogel plans to erect the hotel on Route 1 next to Merchant’s Tire and Auto and near the newly built University View apartment complex. The Jerry’s would become part of the first floor of the hotel, joining a “full-service” restaurant facing the trees behind the lot, Vogel said.
He has already secured a lease for the former Alario’s site, which prevents other tenants from moving in while he works to design and engineer the site. Now that he has the lease, he is trying to buy the land the buildings are on, Sale said.
“The city has identified a need for a conference hotel that could serve university conferences,” she said.
John Koshivos, the senior director of franchise development for Hilton Hotels Corp., said the deal is preliminary, and Vogel cautioned he will not know anything definite for three months.
Vogel is currently contracting an independent firm to evaluate the feasibility of building a hotel in that location. If all goes well, he estimates construction will start in two years.
“The demographics are so strong because of the university … and the research park,” Vogel said.
The results of the study will determine what kind of Hilton, if any, will be built, Koshivos said. Hilton owns hotels including the Hampton Inn, Doubletree hotels and Embassy Suites hotels.
