Five-story hotel proposed for downtown Rockport
Renderings of a proposed five-story, 35 room hotel have been filed at the Rockport Town Office and will be reviewed by the Planning Board at its Oct. 24 meeting. The drawings and an application for a site review were submitted by Gartley & Dorsky Engineers on behalf of 20 Central Street, LLC.
The paperwork was filed on Oct. 8 and states the hotel would be constructed at 20 Central Street in the currently undeveloped parcel between the restaurants 18 Central and Sea Folk Coffee, directly opposite Goodridge Park.
The renderings of the hotel’s facade depict a five-story structure replete with balconies on the four upper levels; the signage above the Central St. entrance reads “Rockport Harbor Hotel.”
“The new hotel will be built on the vacant lot between the existing Shepard Block (18 Central Street) and the existing Martin Block (22 Central Street) buildings. The hotel will be a five-story brick structure as measured from the Central St. elevation,” according to an Oct. 8 cover letter by Gartley & Dorsky to the Planning Board.
A public bar and restaurant on the Central Street level, as well as a top floor bar, are also planned.
Because the parcel is currently undeveloped and would result in a non-residential or multi-family building, a site plan review by the Planning Board is required under the town’s Land Use Ordinance.
The “Rockport Harbor Hotel” is to have 35 rooms.
In blueprints, the new structure appears to directly abut the existing business in the Martin and Shepard block on both sides without leaving any obvious space or passageways in between (there are currently three floors of windows on the side of the Shepard building facing the proposed structure).
Although the owner of the property, Stuart Smith, is not mentioned by name but rather referred to as “20 Central Street, LLC” in the application filed by Gartley & Dorsky, Smith’s other corporation Bay View Management, LLC also appears on the rendering, and his son, Tyler Smith, is listed as an email contact.
According to records filed at the Town Office, the Smiths purchased 14, 16, 18 and 20 Central Street in 2016. The 18 Central Street parcel includes the Shepard Building and the private parking lot behind, which is accessed by driving down toward the harbor on Main Street. 20 Central Street is a vacant lot directly adjacent to the Shepard Building. 14 and 16 Central, where two small homes once sat, is vacant parcel of land between the Shephard Building and Mary Lea Park.
A potential property line reconfiguration behind the hotel, as well as a sale of a portion of land from one LLC to another is also anticipated by Gartley and Dorsky as part of the project:
“Gartley & Dorsky...submits this letter to the Town of Rockport for 20 Central Street, LLC, owner of the property at 20 Central St. The owner proposes to construct a new 35-room hotel at 20 Central St. and 18 Central St....The owner owns both properties and is intending to sell a portion of 18 Central St. to 20 Central Street, LLC, in order to construct the proposed hotel.”
The Planning Board will discuss this and other business proposals at their meeting on Thursday, Oct. 24 at 5:30 at the Rockport Opera House. As of Oct. 21, no information packet for the meeting has been posted on the town’s website.
Reach Louis Bettcher at news@penbaypilot.com
