Apartments, restaurant approved to replace Super 8 motel on Main Street

“The existing structure there now is not consistent with the downtown area. It is in quite a poor state,” Councilman Travis McDermott said. “This is an improvement.”

The proposal from Priya Realty Corporation, which owns the motel, will more than double the footprint of the existing building.

The first floor will have a restaurant fronting on Main Street with covered parking behind it. The restaurant will be a carryout eatery, such as a coffee shop, ice cream shop or sandwich shop, but no tenant has been announced.

The top four floors will contain a total of 56 two-bedroom apartments.

Behind the building, in what is now an unused field, will be more surface parking.

The motel was built in 1962 as a Travelodge. In recent years, it has started showing its age and has prompted complaints about criminal activity happening there. A 2018 arson caused $100,000 in damage to the back portion of the motel.

“Instead of moving forward with repairs of that area that had been damaged, the Patel family elected to try to participate in the ongoing improvements to Main Street,” John Tracey, a lawyer representing the developer, said.

When the project was presented to the planning commission in March, Priya was seeking a 17-space parking waiver. The commission denied that request and told the developer to redesign the project to include the required amount of parking.

Priya didn’t add any parking but instead made the restaurant smaller. Under city code, carryout restaurants with fewer than 25 seats do not require parking. The original plan called for 39 seats, which required 19 dedicated parking spaces.

The approved project includes 114 spaces, two more than the 112 required for the apartments. All of the parking is double-stacked, meaning the first car to park is then blocked in by the second car. That’s a common layout for student housing complexes in Newark.

Priya also pushed the building back 20 feet farther from the street in response to concerns from the planning commission.

On Monday, the project received no opposition from council members or residents. Council voted to rezone the property from general business to central business district, amend the comprehensive development plan, approve a major subdivision with site plan approval and grant a special-use permit for apartments.

“It’s a beautiful plan,” Councilwoman Dwendolyn Creecy said, adding that the proposed building is a big improvement over the motel.

Councilman Jason Lawhorn supported the project but lamented the planning commission’s denial of the parking waiver. He said he wished the developer could have built the larger restaurant as originally planned and added that student parking is not the best use for land downtown.

“I would prefer much less parking,” Lawhorn said. “We want a walkable, bikable community, and when we put 114 parking spots in for 56 units, we’re inviting students to bring their cars. We’re telling them to bring cars. Some students that otherwise wouldn’t, probably will now because, ‘Hey, there’s a space, why not take my car?’”

Once the Super 8 is demolished, Main Street won’t be without a hotel for long. Work is expected to begin soon on Lang Development Group’s long-delayed Hyatt hotel at the Green Mansion. The seven-story building will contain 104 hotel rooms, and a second seven-story building behind it will contain apartments.

Meanwhile, across the street from the Super 8, work is wrapping up on Lang’s three-story building containing 30 apartments and retail space at the site of the former Fulton Bank at 287 E. Main St. Fulton Bank will return to the new building, taking up about half the retail space. The bank will be joined by one or two other retail tenants, which have not been announced.