CV Properties & Starwood Building 330-key Aloft and 180-key Element
Dec. 13–The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority yesterday heralded a groundbreaking for two “mid-priced” hotels on D Street as the kickoff to its proposed $1 billion expansion of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.
CV Properties and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide will build a 330-room Aloft Hotel and a 180-room extended-stay Element Hotel across from the convention center in the South Boston waterfront.
Starwood created the two hotel brands a few years ago based on a “democratization of design” that incorporates qualities of luxury hotels, according to Allison Reid, senior vice president of North American development. Room rates at the D Street properties will be at least 10 percent below prevailing rates of nearby four-star hotels. Both hotels will be “flagships” for their respective brands, Reid said.
The $140 million project is part of a larger MCCA effort to spur development of more hotels near the convention center, from which there are 1,690 rooms within walking distance, compared to an average 7,584 rooms for competing centers in other cities, according to the MCCA. It’s also eyeing a 1,200- to 1,500-room “headquarters hotel” near the BCEC.
The next step in the MCCA’s expansion plan would be passage of the proposed legislation, filed in October, to expand the nine-year-old BCEC by 60 percent, according to executive director James Rooney.
“Our hope is that we can see action from the House and Senate and get it to the governor’s desk in the first quarter of next year,” Rooney said.
