Plans for a proposed 8-story hotel at 1154 Broadway in Teele Square are moving forward.

By Harry Kane

Plans for the proposed Teele Square eight-story hotel on Broadway may be moving forward if developers can cut through red tape that has prolonged the project.

On August 25, City Councilor At-Large Kristen Strezo sponsored a required neighborhood public meeting to discuss plans for the application to redevelop the site at 1154 Broadway in Teele Square.

“You may affectionately know it as the pit,” said Attorney Adam Dash, who represents 1154 Broadway Realty Trust, the owner and applicant of the property.

The parcel has been referred to as the “Teele Square Pit” by locals for years since a multi-tenant building fire affected several businesses, including the Chinese restaurant Kee Kar Lau, a nail salon, Hawk Cleaners, and a Somerville police substation, on October 29, 2011.

The vacant lot has been left idle due to the possibility of soil contamination around the former dry-cleaning establishment that may force the developers to conduct environmental remediation.

“The property was permitted for a six-story hotel under the old zoning ordinance, which was prior to 2019, and that got approved,” Dash said.

That approval has since expired. Now, years later, the developers are proposing an eight-story hotel with 99 rooms.

“A hotel of less than six stories in this economy is just not financeable at the moment,” Dash said.

Now that the application process is underway, the development team requires special permits and variances to move forward with the project.

An interesting feature of the proposed hotel would include parking spaces that contain “parking lifts,” explained Will Chalfant, project manager at Khalsa Design, Inc.

The lifts are automated, and each space can hold three cars, he explained. “You have a pit space, a space at level, and then a space above, and they cycle through, up and down, depending on which car they need,” Chalfant said.

Chalfant noted that the parking lifts will be accessible exclusively by parking attendants; guests will not need to navigate the lifts.

Amenities for guests in the proposal include a fitness room on the second floor and a bike rack in the garage with bikes that will likely be branded with the hotel name.

In the current proposal, the first floor of the hotel will have a 2000 square foot restaurant along Broadway with an outdoor eating area, he said. However, the ground-floor restaurant cannot be directly associated with the hotel; it must be independently operated.

The development team has also proposed a top-floor restaurant. “On the top floor level, we have a nice restaurant bar that wraps around the three sides of the building, intended to take advantage of the views of the city … looking towards Boston,” Chalfant explained.

The renderings show a rooftop lounge with outdoor seating for hotel guests.

In terms of the overall look of the exterior of the building, Chalfant says: “We are trying to fit in, rather than stand out.”

The development team provided renderings showing a “known brick esthetic,” and is “trying to have a design language that’s very understandable, but that’s also contemporary to an extent that will stand the test of time,” Chalfant said.

One proposal being considered by the development team is for a Hotel by Hilton, which has several boutique lines of hotels, one of which is called the Graduate by Hilton. The team believes this will encourage parents who visit students at Tufts University to stay at the hotel.