Editor’s note: This story by Corey McDonald was first published by The Other Paper on April 27.
A new developer has signed on to build a hotel at Burlington International Airport, giving new life to an enterprise that has had to clear multiple hurdles years after first being proposed.
Colwen Hotels, a New Hampshire-based company, has signed on to develop the proposed hotel with DEW Corporation, a local construction company based in Williston. The two companies, collectively listed as BTV Hotel LLC, have signed on to a new lease agreement with the airport with a revised rent structure between the developers and the airport.
“We’re in a really, really great position to finish this and get it fully built,” said Nic Longo, the airport’s director of aviation.
Efforts to bring a hotel to the airport first started in 2017 to ensure travelers and passengers affected by delays had a place to stay. Initial plans called for a 105-room hotel at the south end of the airport’s parking lot, with construction expected to begin in 2019.
Those plans were changed after the Federal Aviation Administration raised concerns over the height of the building, as well as possible interference with radio and radar signals, Longo said.
The proposal was revamped and relocated to the north side of the terminal, where current plans call for it to be built. Permits were approved and the project was expected to break ground in 2020 — until Covid-19 emerged and wreaked havoc on air travel and life in general.
“From early 2020 through 2022, the travel and tourism industry were significantly impacted, and we decided to pause the development on the future hotel until the recovery of both the hotel and aviation industry occurred,” Longo wrote in a memo submitted to the Burlington City Council.
Developers then had their plans and permits approved by the South Burlington Development Review Board in 2021 — only to have one of the development partners drop out.
Now, there is renewed optimism that a hotel could finally break ground, as the airport forecasts travel and passenger numbers to rise well past pre-pandemic figures this year.
Under the updated, 49-year lease agreement, the hotel would pay a minimum rent to the airport on a per-square-foot basis, rather than based on a percentage of the hotel’s gross revenues — with additional rent earned through the airport’s garage by hotel guests through a “park and fly” program, Longo said.
The new rent structure will “generate revenues that are at least equivalent to, if not greater than the revenues that were projected to be earned under the previously approved structure,” Longo said.
Colwen Hotels has extensive hotel holdings throughout the Northeast, officials said. The company did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.
While details of the hotel have not been finalized, Pete Kelley, the vice president of DEW Construction, said he expects a five-story building with approximately 120 rooms.
The hotel will have to make the rounds through the city’s development review board again to get updated permits for the revised project, but the development partners are not anticipating any hurdles “because it’s the same project,” Kelley said.
“Our goal is somewhere between late fall and spring of next year we will break ground,” he added.
