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CWDI debates 6‑story, 90‑room hotel versus smaller hotel+condos for Cambridge waterfront
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Summary
Board members and consultants weighed a smaller 2.8‑acre plan with condos against enlarging the hotel footprint to about 3.12–3.18 acres for a 90‑room, 6‑story hotel, with arguments centering on parking, revenue and neighborhood fit; a work session with the prospective developer Pinnacle is scheduled and Mackenzie will market the site while HUD and USDA identified potential infrastructure funding.
The Cambridge Waterfront Development Initiative (CWDI) spent most of its partners meeting debating whether the planned waterfront hotel should remain on a roughly 2.8‑acre footprint with adjacent condos or be enlarged to about 3.12–3.18 acres for a six‑story, 90‑room hotel that would keep all parking on site.
Tim, the board’s project analyst, told members that parking requirements (1.5 spaces per room) make a full‑service hotel impractical on 2.8 acres without off‑site parking or a garage. He said a 45‑room option paired with 24 condos had an estimated construction cost of about $13,000,500 for the hotel plus ~$25,000,000 for the condos, while the 90‑room hotel proposal had a construction estimate near $35,000,000 and produced the higher projected room‑night revenue and tax yield. “The larger hotel brings in more money,” Tim said, describing the comparison of room taxes and property‑tax projections.
Board members and commissioners pressed for balance between those financial conclusions and the project’s design goals. One commissioner warned a six‑story hotel could “create a wall on the creek” and urged sensitivity to the master plan’s new‑urbanist goals and waterfront views; another argued the site’s scale and the presence of existing taller waterfront structures mean a taller hotel can work if well designed. “I don’t want something done that could be anywhere USA,” a member said, urging a design that respects Cambridge’s context.
The board confirmed a focused work session with the prospective hotel developer, Pinnacle, on the sixth (Monday) to resolve acreage and site‑plan questions. Board leadership said they want Pinnacle to present concrete drawings the board can mark up rather than continuing the conceptual phase. The board is still finalizing a contract with Mackenzie to act as the site’s commercial broker; representatives from Mackenzie said they will complete a marketing package, target Mid‑Atlantic developers, bring top candidates to the site and prioritize long‑term fit over the highest purchase bid.
Planning committee members reported officials from HUD and the USDA toured the site and identified funding opportunities the city could pursue to help offset infrastructure costs. Board members said sewer and water lines are stubbed to the site and can be tied in, although some systems are aging, and that major infrastructure work (roads, parking, lighting) is a separate public‑cost question that requires detailed accounting.
No formal vote or contract was taken during the meeting. Instead, the board emphasized due diligence: finishing the site‑plan acreage decision with Pinnacle, finalizing broker redlines with Mackenzie, completing the regulating plan and design guidelines, and coordinating the overlay zoning into the city’s Unified Development Code so the parcel can be marketed with clarity about permissible form and scale.
Next procedural steps noted by the board were the Monday work session with Pinnacle, follow‑up with city planner Brian Herman on integrating the regulating plan into the UDC, continued outreach to HUD/USDA about infrastructure grants, and community engagement events on the promenade scheduled for the summer. The board asked staff to circulate the financial packet reviewed at the meeting to state contacts who requested the numbers.
