A seven-story hotel and apartment project at the heart of Main Street in Newark is moving forward.
Newark City Council approved a larger plan to redevelop and massively expand the historic Green Mansion on Main Street two years ago. But developers modified the plan after the pandemic hit, shrinking the size of the hotel and replacing the proposed office space with 48 residential units.
At issue during Monday’s City Council meeting were two special use permits, a major subdivision and a parking waiver, which lets the developer pay extra to build 39 fewer parking spaces than would be required under city code.
City Councilman Jay Bancroft framed this as a bad idea, given ongoing discussion about parking issues downtown. He was the only member of Council to vote against the approvals.
“To be consistent with our previous council decisions, I think that the parking should not be made worse without a further strategy in place,” Bancroft said.
Jeff Lang, the developer, argued Newark has a “suburban parking code for an urban setting,” and that the hotel would not require the normal level of parking.
Several Council members, including Chris Hamilton, touted the economic benefit the project could bring to the city.
“I imagine there will be a lot of UD professors, anybody that is potentially speaking at the University, who wants to stay directly downtown, will come downtown and they’ll be able to visit our businesses,” Hamilton said.
The project preserves and incorporates the Green Mansion, which was built in 1882. The project will include an underground parking structure, 104 hotel rooms, “amenity space” and 48 two-bedroom residential units.
Council approved the project’s parking waiver, special use permits and major subdivision by a vote of 5-1.
