Construction crews are racing to put the finishing touches on Emeryville’s newest hotel located at the northern end of the Bay Street Shopping Center. The Hyatt Place hotel will be the first new hotel built in Emeryville since the Woodfin Suites (now Hyatt House) and Marriott Courtyard both opened in early 2001. Hyatt Place is scheduled to have its Grand Opening on Monday, November 21st.
Hyatt Place will feature 175 rooms spread across six floors with each room offering a sleeper sofa, a 49″ flat panel television, and over a dozen electrical and USB outlets, free wifi and other state of the art amenities. They’re also looking into employing a service robot for delivering small items to hotel patrons.
The hotel itself will over a free breakfast, a full bar, and a conference room space. The hotel dining area will have local, craft beers on tap as well. “It’s state of the art, comfortable, and business casual…at a great value” said Rich Higdon, General Manager of the hotel.
The upscale limited-service hotel faces stiff and direct competition in the area. Within a block, the Courtyard by Marriott and the Four Points by Sheraton compete for the same category of travelers.
But Higdon said he’s trying to differentiate the hotel by playing up its close proximity to the Bay Street Mall, promoting the local area, and responding to resident’s concerns.
One way they’re doing this is by embracing the Emeryville and Oakland creative communities. Numerous fixtures in the hotel were designed by local artists, including an outdoor railing. Of particular note is a large lobby light installation made from repurposed bike rims by Alameda-based artist, Clint Imboden.
“We know Emeryville is an arts community,” said Higdon. “Our owners embraced and upgraded our art selection.”
The hotel is also attempting to reduce its impact on the environment through the use of recycled water for landscaping and building an incentive program to promote transit usage. Higdon says that 60 percent of his staff takes public transportation to work currently.
Hyatt House will join our existing base of hotels that includes the Courtyard by Marriott, Hyatt House (designed for extended stays), Hilton Garden Inn and Four Points by Sheraton. Citywide, hotels contribute rather favorably to Emeryville’s Tax Base. Our Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) collected from the existing four hotels for the entire fiscal year 2016-17 is budgeted as $6.82M. The new Hyatt Place is expected to add $585k to 2016/17 fiscal year according to Finance Supervisor Michelle Strawson O’Hara. The City is estimating $1.3M for Fiscal year 2017-18.
Read more and make reservation on their website.
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Anyone know what the future holds for the giant empty lot next to it? Who owns it?
I know of no current plans although at one point is was suppose to be a Macy’s Department store prior to redevelopment being axed:
https://evilleeye.com/news-commentary/development/proposal-for-bay-st-macys-dead-city-seeks-new-ideas/