An AC Hotel, the business-focused brand that’s part of Marriott Hotels group, will likely soon rise from a parking lot on the of Colorado Boulevard and Madison Avenue in Pasadena, instead of a five-story medical office building that the Pasadena Design Commission had earlier approved.
Plans submitted to the Department of Planning and Community Development show that the site owner is requesting the change.
According to a memo in the city’s Design Commission agenda, the City Council called the Design Commission’s July 10, 2018 approval of the consolidated design review up for review and, at the request of the applicant, continued the hearing on multiple occasions while the ownership negotiated for a potential new development proposal on the site.
Last year, the council remanded the call for review to the Design Commission and it has been on hold waiting for the applicant to move forward.
On Sept. 14, the developer submitted an application for changes to an approved project to change the previously approved medical office building to a six-story hotel building with ground-level commercial space, in a substantially different design than was previously approved.
The project requires a conditional use permit (CUP). The application for the CUP is currently being reviewed by staff and is scheduled for a public hearing in the near future.
“If that application is approved, the next step in the review process will be Design Commission review of the submitted application for changes to an an approved project,” according to the memo.
The plans showed what is planned to be constructed instead is a new AC Hotel Pasadena, with 195 rooms and 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.
Due to the amount of time that has transpired since the most recent Design Commission review of the project, staff was scheduled to present an overview of the project history and the designs previously presented to bring the current Design Commission up to date on the project scope and the designs previously presented.
Staff and the applicant will also provide a preview of the design that has been submitted for the new hotel project to the commission.
Staff will provide a complete staff report and recommendation regarding the project’s consistency with the applicable design guidelines in the Central District Specific Plan will be included when the project is scheduled for a formal review by the commission.
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One thought on “Change of Plans: Medical Office Building Concept Out, Hotel In For Downtown Pasadena Parking Lot”
As long as they provide parking for their guests and their customer pull up doesn’t effect traffic.