A landmark hotel property on Holiday Inn Drive will eventually be home to a new hotel operating under two brands.
The corporate owner of the Sunbridge Hotel and Conference Centre is in the process of demolishing the hotel with a plan to rebuild a Residence Inn and Fairfield Inn by Marriott on the site.
Instead of being renovated for a Four Points Sheraton, the existing structure will be torn down to accommodate the brand new dual brand hotel on the site of the former Holiday Inn.
A previous plan for the project had it operating as a Holiday Inn Express and Staybridge Suites Hotel.
Vice-president of construction for Sunray Group, Dan Burgess, said the change of plan for the site happened three months ago.
“You’re sacrificing a lot having to reuse an existing building,” he said. With a new building “you can build exactly what you want.”
Burgess said the architect on the project is currently working on the procurement drawings in advance of an application being filed with the City of Cambridge. A site plan could be ready by the fall.
The current scope of the project is for a six-storey building with about 150 rooms, a pool and conference centre.
Burgess said Marriott has brand standards and prototypes the development firm will have to follow.
“We expect to know in a couple of months and they’ll go in for the permits,” he said.
As for timing on the build, Burgess said he would expect the approval could take up to a year.
“I don’t know if you know these days, trying to get permits from cities is taking a long, long time. You never know about timing.”
“We’d like to think we could start a year from now.”
