Jones Lang LaSalle
Bridgewater to decide if hotels are welcome
Official touts taxes, residents not sure
Sunday, February 05, 2006
BY PETER N. SPENCERFor the Star-Ledger
They are usually big, sometimes unattractive and often unwelcome by their smaller neighbors.
But like their Monopoly counterparts, real-life hotels can also bring huge profits.
Residents and officials of Bridgewater Township just have to decide if all that money is worth all of that building.
Florham Park-based Briad Development has asked the township's board of adjustment for several variances to build two 52-foot-high hotels next to the Graymark office building on Route 22 near Adamsville Road -- in a zone where hotels are not permitted, and where buildings above three-stories tall are not allowed.
For that to happen, Briad would need permission to subdivide the 13.4-acre property into an 8.8-acre lot, upon which it would build the 132-unit, 72,300-square-foot Hampton Inn Suites; and a 4.6-acre lot, which would house the 123-unit, 89,100-square-foot Homewood Suites Hilton.
The Homewood Suites would also provide an area called "The Lodge" which would include an indoor pool, meeting rooms, and outdoor tennis, basketball and squash courts.
Both hotels would share 246 parking spaces in adjoining lots.
The board of adjustment would also have to grant Briad variances -- exceptions to the zoning restrictions -- for building height, (both buildings would be four stories); permitted use (the current zoning permits commercial office space, warehouses, manufacturing and animal hospitals); floor-area-ratio (one hotel would cover more than 44 percent of the lot, where 35 percent is permitted); and for front and rear yard setbacks, or distances from property lines.
Most of the few dozen residents who attended a board of adjustment meeting on the proposal last week are opposed to the buildings, which they say would be too large and too close to nearby homes. Many, like Chelsea Way resident Daniel Seeley, simply asked Briad to make them smaller.
Township economic development officer Howard Turbowitz welcomes the project, because he said hotels would not only bring more business to the township, but more tax revenue to the municipality than most office or retail buildings -- because they can be taxed twice.
"We don't have a problem with two upscale hotels ... I think it enhances the office space properties," Turbowitz said.
The hotels' property taxes, coupled with the state hotel occupancy tax could also enhance the township coffers by more than $1 million annually.
Since it took effect Aug. 1, 2003, the 8 percent hotel occupancy tax has been a significant boon to municipalities across the state. Initially, the state collected 7 percent tax from hotels and motels, and allowed municipalities to collect an additional 1 percent tax.
But after the first year, the state portion dropped to 5 percent, while municipalities were permitted to collect 3 percent.
In 2005 -- the first full year municipalities were able to collect that full 3 percent -- Bridgewater Township collected about $742,000 in hotel occupancy tax. That was more than double the $302,000 it collected a year before, according to the township's finance department.
Added to the $1,355,000 it collected in property taxes from the five township hotels in 2005, total revenues from hotels accounted for almost 7 percent of the Bridgewater's $30.5 million 2005 municipal budget.
In total, Somerset County municipalities collected about $2.5 million, and municipalities across the state collected at total of $50 million in hotel occupancy tax in 2005.
Those numbers alone may make hotels more desirable to municipalities, and could help explain why the number of hotels in the area have been growing steadily.
Hotels to open their doors in the past three years include the Marriott near the Bridgewater Commons Mall on Commons Way, the Hilton Gardens across from the Promenade Shopping Center and the Holiday Inn Express and Sierra Suites in Branchburg.
And the announcement in November by drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis to expand its New Jersey operations and consolidate its U.S. headquarters on a campus in Bridgewater may have made the market even more attractive.
Though Graymark building owner George Brock had already begun working with Briad on the hotel plans almost a year before that, it assured him he was making the right business decision.
Brock already has approval from the township to build two, 52-foot-high, 125,000-square-foot office buildings on the site, but he said he felt the hotels would make more sense. They would be the "perfect amenities" to an office park, service the growing demand for hotel rooms and serve as a draw for business to move to the township, he said.
"Large, quality tenants want to be near a hotel -- a high-end hotel," Brock said.
The board of adjustment will continue hearings on the Briad Development application -- including testimony by a planner hired by the company -- at the March 28 meeting.
© 2006 The Star Ledger
© 2006 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.
Bridgewater to decide if hotels are welcome
Official touts taxes, residents not sure
Sunday, February 05, 2006
BY PETER N. SPENCERFor the Star-Ledger
They are usually big, sometimes unattractive and often unwelcome by their smaller neighbors.
But like their Monopoly counterparts, real-life hotels can also bring huge profits.
Residents and officials of Bridgewater Township just have to decide if all that money is worth all of that building.
Florham Park-based Briad Development has asked the township's board of adjustment for several variances to build two 52-foot-high hotels next to the Graymark office building on Route 22 near Adamsville Road -- in a zone where hotels are not permitted, and where buildings above three-stories tall are not allowed.
For that to happen, Briad would need permission to subdivide the 13.4-acre property into an 8.8-acre lot, upon which it would build the 132-unit, 72,300-square-foot Hampton Inn Suites; and a 4.6-acre lot, which would house the 123-unit, 89,100-square-foot Homewood Suites Hilton.
The Homewood Suites would also provide an area called "The Lodge" which would include an indoor pool, meeting rooms, and outdoor tennis, basketball and squash courts.
Both hotels would share 246 parking spaces in adjoining lots.
The board of adjustment would also have to grant Briad variances -- exceptions to the zoning restrictions -- for building height, (both buildings would be four stories); permitted use (the current zoning permits commercial office space, warehouses, manufacturing and animal hospitals); floor-area-ratio (one hotel would cover more than 44 percent of the lot, where 35 percent is permitted); and for front and rear yard setbacks, or distances from property lines.
Most of the few dozen residents who attended a board of adjustment meeting on the proposal last week are opposed to the buildings, which they say would be too large and too close to nearby homes. Many, like Chelsea Way resident Daniel Seeley, simply asked Briad to make them smaller.
Township economic development officer Howard Turbowitz welcomes the project, because he said hotels would not only bring more business to the township, but more tax revenue to the municipality than most office or retail buildings -- because they can be taxed twice.
"We don't have a problem with two upscale hotels ... I think it enhances the office space properties," Turbowitz said.
The hotels' property taxes, coupled with the state hotel occupancy tax could also enhance the township coffers by more than $1 million annually.
Since it took effect Aug. 1, 2003, the 8 percent hotel occupancy tax has been a significant boon to municipalities across the state. Initially, the state collected 7 percent tax from hotels and motels, and allowed municipalities to collect an additional 1 percent tax.
But after the first year, the state portion dropped to 5 percent, while municipalities were permitted to collect 3 percent.
In 2005 -- the first full year municipalities were able to collect that full 3 percent -- Bridgewater Township collected about $742,000 in hotel occupancy tax. That was more than double the $302,000 it collected a year before, according to the township's finance department.
Added to the $1,355,000 it collected in property taxes from the five township hotels in 2005, total revenues from hotels accounted for almost 7 percent of the Bridgewater's $30.5 million 2005 municipal budget.
In total, Somerset County municipalities collected about $2.5 million, and municipalities across the state collected at total of $50 million in hotel occupancy tax in 2005.
Those numbers alone may make hotels more desirable to municipalities, and could help explain why the number of hotels in the area have been growing steadily.
Hotels to open their doors in the past three years include the Marriott near the Bridgewater Commons Mall on Commons Way, the Hilton Gardens across from the Promenade Shopping Center and the Holiday Inn Express and Sierra Suites in Branchburg.
And the announcement in November by drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis to expand its New Jersey operations and consolidate its U.S. headquarters on a campus in Bridgewater may have made the market even more attractive.
Though Graymark building owner George Brock had already begun working with Briad on the hotel plans almost a year before that, it assured him he was making the right business decision.
Brock already has approval from the township to build two, 52-foot-high, 125,000-square-foot office buildings on the site, but he said he felt the hotels would make more sense. They would be the "perfect amenities" to an office park, service the growing demand for hotel rooms and serve as a draw for business to move to the township, he said.
"Large, quality tenants want to be near a hotel -- a high-end hotel," Brock said.
The board of adjustment will continue hearings on the Briad Development application -- including testimony by a planner hired by the company -- at the March 28 meeting.
© 2006 The Star Ledger
© 2006 NJ.com All Rights Reserved.
posted by Jones Lang LaSalle NJ News Blog at 10:29 AM
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