Developers and designers presented Aug. 6 a plan to rehabilitate the historic Chandler House at 151 Walnut Street as a mixed-use cultural project combining a members’ social club, boutique hotel rooms, a small wellness/spa area and an artist-in-residence program.

Project proponents said the plan will preserve the Victorian-era building’s historic fabric while adding a new accessible ramp, a stair/elevator tower to meet building and fire-code requirements, and sensitive masonry and millwork restoration. The owners plan to keep the front lawn and add a sculptural garden and pedestrian improvements rather than convert the lawn into a parking lot.

Because the proposed program mixes hotel, club and spa uses, the zoning code’s cumulative parking requirement would be 49 spaces. The application asked the board for a conditional use permit to provide fewer on-site spaces and to rely on “flex parking” agreements with nearby properties. The team said it has written or verbal agreements to access up to 60–70 off-site spaces from nearby institutional owners — the Currier Museum (DECA), Temple Adath Yeshurun and others — and that on-street parking in the area provides additional capacity.

The project team said it has already received variances from the Zoning Board of Adjustment for specific use and dimensional relief needed to enable the hotel and club elements. They have also applied to historic-preservation stakeholders and briefed the Heritage Commission; project architects said they will restore, replicate or rebuild architectural details such as cornices, columns and porch elements where needed.

Developers described a financing approach that includes operating revenues, private investment and targeted grant or tax-credit funding; they said the social-club model is designed to provide recurring revenues to sustain expensive preservation work. The applicants said the building would be professionally managed and would include community-oriented programming, with a portion of revenues supporting local arts and nonprofit initiatives.

Public comment at the hearing was strongly supportive; attendees included neighborhood residents, preservation professionals and representatives of local arts and economic development organizations. Several letters of support were cited by staff and the applicant.

Why it matters: The Chandler House is a locally significant landmark; the proposal pairs preservation with a mixed-use business model meant to fund long-term maintenance. The project would introduce new cultural programming and hotel rooms in a neighborhood dominated by institutional and cultural uses.

Next steps: The board closed the public hearing Aug. 6; staff and the applicants will finalize technical comments ahead of an anticipated decision at the Aug. 21 business meeting.