Dec. 17–Albert R. Boscov was excitedly making and receiving countless phone calls in his Exeter Township office Monday after getting word that the last of the financing for a downtown hotel and convention center was finally in place.

He immediately began making plans to break ground Friday at 11:30 a.m. in the 700 block of Penn Street across from the Santander Arena.

“It’s been a long wait but we got it,” Boscov said.

The renowned retailer has been working on the block-long, four-star hotel, which will cost at least $56 million, since 2007.

Construction of the 208-room Doubletree is expected to begin shortly. The hotel will open in the summer of 2015, Boscov said.

The nine-floor facility will feature a swimming pool, a 12,000-square-foot main ballroom, a 4,000-square-foot smaller ballroom and a restaurant and bar facing Penn Street, Boscov said.

“This hotel is so classy,” he said.

The empty block in the middle of downtown not only hasn’t contributed to the economy but actually held it back, said Charles R. Broad, executive director of the Downtown Improvement District.

“It’s been an eyesore,” Broad said.

Broad said he anticipates a tremendous economic boost from hotel guests patronizing city businesses and facilities.

While he said he is concerned about a potential negative impact on The Abraham Lincoln hotel at Fifth and Washington streets, Broad said he hopes the new hotel will create a demand for more downtown restaurants and retail.

That was a goal when the arena opened in 2001 and some of that investment happened, he said.

“Adding a hotel now is hopefully a stronger encouragement to the private sector to do other development downtown,” Broad said.

Boscov has long tried to create a restaurant row downtown and successfully courted Panevino to open on North Second Street facing the Reading Movies 11 and Imax Theater, which Boscov also helped attract to the city.

But Boscov said Monday he was forced to divert some financing from the restaurants’ project to the hotel to secure a deal.

“So I need to start begging for that (restaurant) money again,” he said of the four vacant restaurant spaces next to Panevino.

Now that all but two of the 59 GoggleWorks Apartments at Second and Washington streets are occupied, Boscov said he will also turn his attention to creating 25 more apartments in the vacant building attached to the GoggleWorks Center for Arts.

Contact Jason Brudereck: 610-371-5044 or jbrudereck@readingeagle.com.