The former car dealership will now be the spot of the Cambria Hotel.
Mark Vogel, a 1971 University of Maryland alumnus, said people who visit College Park consistently tell him the same thing: The hotels in the area leave much to be desired.
“I can’t tell you how many times I have had people who were staying at the Quality Inn or the Clarion Inn and they walk in and say, ’Oh my God. Get me out of here,’” he said. University President Wallace Loh “and his team have finally made it an absolute priority to clean up Route 1 and get some restaurants in there and offer people good places to stay.”
Not only is The Hotel at the University of Maryland — a $150 million luxury four-diamond hotel and conference center — set to open in January 2017, but construction is set to start on another hotel on Route 1.
READ MORE: The Hotel at the University of Maryland complex to house restaurants, spa
Construction began this month on the site that will house a 156-room Cambria Hotel where the Koons Ford showroom once stood. A CVS, parking garage and restaurant will also occupy the lot after the long-vacant showroom was demolished this summer. David Hillman, CEO of Southern Management Corporation, is the main developer for the project.
The brand of the hotel, which is under the umbrella of Choice Hotels, will be formally announced soon, officials said. The Cambria Hotel is described as an “upscale, limited-service hotel,” said Eric Olson, the executive director of the College Park City-University Partnership.
“We picked the Cambria because we thought it was cutting-edge, urban and cool,” said Vogel, a longtime real estate developer in Prince George’s County and a partner in the project. “When you see it, you will see what I mean. It is a really neat concept.”
READ MORE: Demolition of Koons Ford dealership on Route 1 makes way for hotel
The city also revealed that the restaurant in the new retail development will be called College Park Grill. It will feature barbecue, seafood and pasta on an “all-around cuisine” menu, Vogel said. Adam Greenberg, the founder and president of Restaurant Zone, will run the restaurant.
Greenberg also owns Potomac Pizza, a local fixture in this state since 1978, and is opening Potomac Pizza’s fifth location underneath The Hotel, along with a bagel restaurant.
Olson said there will be a “real transformation from the old Koons site to a really nice hotel and retail area.”
“It is going add to a lot to the midtown section of College Park,” he said. “It is going to be really good hotel product that will attract all types of people.”
Vogel said the developers are not worried about the hotels competing, because there is enough need to fill both of them, and they play off each other well.
“It will be a complement to The Hotel and the conferences there,” he said. “They are going to need more than 300 rooms. The Hotel is going to be a little more expensive, so people who want to still stay at a nice hotel won’t have to pay the top dollar to stay at The Hotel.”
Kiauna Freeman said she was surprised there were plans in the works for another hotel so soon.
“I am shocked because I didn’t know we needed another,” the junior economics major said. “If a lot of people’s parents do come to visit them from out of state and the city thinks a hotel is needed, then it must be needed.”
Because there are so many personnel involved with The Hotel, Vogel said, they don’t want the two hotels opening at the same time. The CVS and parking garage are the first phases of the project in the former Koons lot, and in about six months, construction on the hotel and restaurant will begin.
The retail area will offer free parking and should be a desirable location for people just getting off work, Vogel said.
“[Greenberg] is going to have a really big happy hour for this restaurant,” he said. “There will be free parking so people on their way home from work can pull right in and enjoy the restaurant.”
And as for the hotel guests, Vogel said he is happy that they will have a convenient option in town.
“At this hotel, people will be able to walk over to the football games or basketball games,” he said. “It is going to bring a different type of person to College Park, and they don’t have to stay in Bethesda or D.C. anymore. They can stay in College Park.”
