Holiday Inn adds “Express” with $19M redevelopment plan

3/25/2015 | Real Estate Blog

The Holiday Inn Fort Washington sits on seven acres of land in Montgomery County. The hotel offers guests the choice of 230 rooms and access to an in-house restaurant. The building was developed in 1975 with the best amenities of the time. Now, forty years later, the doors have closed and 61 employees were laid off.

Those doors will not stay closed for long. Haverford Hotel Partners and Haverford Properties Inc. purchased the property and plan to spend $19 million to give the hotel more than just a minor facelift. The property will be redeveloped and reopened as a Holiday Inn Express.

“We are repurposing the hotel so it has a 21st century focus,” said managing partner of Haverford Hotel Partners Bill McNamara. The repurposing includes giving the property some needed updates. It also includes scaling the number of rooms down to 168 and removing the restaurant. The plan does provide for a new restaurant on the property but separate from the main building.

Any development plan involves much more than blueprints. Over the past year, developers for this project conducted comprehensive due diligence and had to seek several zoning approvals. According to a recent report in the Philadelphia Business Journal, those approvals have all gone through and the plan can move forward.

Zoning often seems like such a minor issue, but a single zoning issue can stop a project dead in its tracks and cost investors and developers millions. It is crucial that the parties handle zoning requests as effectively and efficiently as is possible.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal, “Fort Washington Holiday Inn sold, will undergo $19M redevelopment,” Natalie Kostelni, March 23, 2015