Hotel Deal Off; Deadline Nears

Starwood’s out. LiveWorkLearnPlay’s still in.

So said Max Reim, the Montreal-based developer looking to build a $400 million new urbanist mini-city atop the old New Haven Coliseum site with 1,000 mixed-income apartments, 30 – 40 new businesses, a four-and-a-half-star hotel with 160 – 190 rooms, 30,000 square feet of stores, and a public square.

Reim had hoped to put together a key missing piece of the long-awaited plan by signing a deal with Starwood Hotels for that four-and-a-half star operation. As far back as October 2014 Reim had said an announcement of the project’s hotel developer was ​“imminent.” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy made the release of $21.5 million in state bonding money for needed road improvements contingent on inclusion of a hotel in the first phase of the project.

But then the Marriott chain struck a deal in November to acquire Starwood, which builds Sheraton and Westin luxury hotels. Talks stalled.

That means Reim’s Montreal-based LiveWorkLearnPlay company is still without a hotel lined up for the deal. The company faces a May 15 deadline set in its development land disposition agreement with the city to have a hotel company on board.

No need to worry, Reim said in a phone conversation.

“We have a letter of interest with Starwood. However, in light of the merger with Marriott, there is an entire new series of executives that we would have to deal with. And the senior executives that we were dealing with at Starwood have both left Starwood for other companies,” Reim said. ​“We have a brand new set of opportunities with two very exciting hotel groups, both of which are making proposals to us so that we can finalize our agreements with the right hotel company, the right group of people.”

Reim declined to name the companies.

He said he’s ​“absolutely” confident he will have a deal to announce in time for the May 15 deadline.

“We have hotel companies chasing us right now,” he said. ​“We’re just trying to take our time to make sure we’re doing the right thing. Whatever hotel team we decide to go with, it’s for years and years. … Once we commit to one of those hotel groups, we’re marrying that hotel’s vision for the community for years.”

Mayor Toni Harp visited with Reim last week when she toured Montreal along with Economic Development Corporation chief Virginia Kozlowski and International Festival of Arts & Ideas head Mary Lou Aleskie. They were there to look at bioscience business opportunities for New Haven as well as to look at ​“cultural and arts opportunities,” Harp said in an interview on WNHH radio’s ​“Dateline New Haven” program.

“I am a little concerned about the hotel,” Harp said in reference to the Coliseum site project. ​“One of the things that we learned when I met with Yale President Peter Salovey as well as the folks from Alexion [Pharmaceuticals] is that we absolutely need hotel space for them to grow. They’re [Alexion] in over 50 countries. They bring people in and out of the state.”

City Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson predicted a new hotel builder will be in place by May 15.

“I’m the development administrator,” Nemerson said. ​“I’m confident all our developers will do what they need to do.”

State Deputy Economic Development Commissioner Tim Sullivan expressed continued support for the project: ​“The state continues to work closely with LWLP and the City to bring LWLP’s vision to reality and we are excited about the progress that has been made on critical path items including site design and utility relocation planning. We look forward to seeing more progress as the planning process continues and then as the project transitions to the construction phase.”

Click on or upload the above sound file to listen to Mayor Harp’s appearance on WNHH radio, which covered economic development, the city budget, Alexion Pharmaceuticals’ opening. The discussion about her trip to Montreal begins at 20:00.