Update: Douglas Development is requesting to pull its modified plans for the Statler redevelopment from Monday’s Planning Board agenda and is expected to submit new plans that includes three floors of hotel rooms in the building. The revised plan will contain 443 apartments in the building’s upper levels with 213 hotel rooms on the ninth through eleventh floors. The base of the building will include event space, office space, retail, and one floor of underground parking.
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Douglas Jemal is proposing changes to the mix of space proposed in the historic Statler Building on Niagara Square. The biggest changes involve eliminating plans for hotel rooms on three floors, adding significantly more apartments, shrinking plans for multiple parking levels on the building’s lower levels, and adding office space into the mix.
In fall 2021, Jemal received City approval for converting the building into 334 apartments, 183 hotel rooms, 700 parking spaces, 100,000 sq. ft. of event space, and 25,000 sq. ft. of retail space. The revised plan calls for 558 apartments, 175 parking spaces, 70,000 sq.ft. of event space, 22,582 sq.ft. of retail space, and 126,169 sq.ft. of office space on the mezzanine and second levels. If completed, it will be the largest downtown residential building by unit count.
Previous Uses Top, Proposed Uses Bottom
Details from the Application to the Planning Board:
Increased Residential Unit Count: The Developer now proposes an increase from the 334 apartments as authorized in the Approved Site Plan to a more plentiful 548 apartments within the Towers on floors 4 through 18. The 105 units proposed for Floors 9 through 11 are designated Historic Residential Units and will be restored consistent with state and federal standards to preserve the hotel’s important legacy.
Elimination of the Hotel Component: The Approved Site Plan proposed 183 hotel rooms, though the Developer now submits the Amended Site Plan that no longer includes a designated hotel room component. Instead, the unit count now favors residential apartments as set forth above.
Reduction in Retail Square Footage: The Amended Site Plan proposes a slight reduction in overall retail space from 25,000 sq. ft. to 22,582 sq. ft. at ground level within the Base.
Increase in Office Space: The Amended Site Plan introduces an office space component to the Project and would offer approximately 129,169 sq. ft. of office space in the heart of the City.
Incidental Reduction in Event Space: The Amended Site Plan’s redesign of the Base results in a minor decrease in proposed event space from 100,000 sq. ft. to the now proposed approximately 70,000 sq. ft. of event space within the historic hotel Base.
Parking Structure Reduction: To right-size the Project’s parking offerings to be consistent with projected demand, the Amended Site Plan proposes 100,000 sq. ft. beneath the building as a single level of 175 parking spaces to service the Project, as compared to the Approved Site Plan’s 700 proposed spaces within an on-site multi-level parking structure that occupied more than 150,000 sq. ft. across a large portion of the basement, mezzanine, and second and third floors of the historic hotel’s base.
Jemal purchased the Statler in 2020 and immediately began preservation and restoration of the lower exterior of the building, work that prior owner Mark Croce had started. The preservation and restoration of the building’s exterior lower floors is consistent with the Secretary of Interior’s standards for restoring historic structures and is eligible for historic tax credits.
In 2021, Jemal purchased the neighboring Walter J. Mahoney State Office Building for $4.1 million and announced plans to convert the property into a 60-room boutique hotel. That project has not started but he has been updating the nearby Hyatt hotel at Main and W. Huron streets.