$7 million will be invested to reposition Crowne Plaza hotel

$7M will be invested to reposition Crowne Plaza hotel

Philadelphia Business Journal - by Peter Van Allen Staff Writer

The former Holiday Inn on City Avenue is getting a makeover befitting its location in an area that has seen major investment of late.

Owners of the hotel, now known as Crowne Plaza Philadelphia Main Line, plan to invest up to $7 million in the renovations that they hope will restore the hotel's reputation as a place for corporate meetings and stays, as well as the so-called SMERF market (social, military, educational, religious, fraternal bookings). It hopes to compete with Main Line hotels like the Philadelphia Marriott West in West Conshohocken, the Radnor Hotel in Radnor and the Hilton Philadelphia City Avenue.

The 337-room Crowne Plaza is located at 4100 Presidential Blvd., on the Philadelphia side of City Avenue, not far from I-76.

"As a Holiday Inn, we developed a reputation as a social-group hotel. With the gentrification, if you will, of City Avenue, we wanted to be part of the market across the street -- the Bala market," said Stephen P. Field, president of Wayne-based Synergy Hospitality, majority owner of the Crowne Plaza. "We want to be the eastern anchor of the Main Line, from Bala west."

Field's father developed the hotel in the early 1980s, but the renovations were done with an infusion of capital from Philadelphia-based FB Capital Partners, which now owns 49 percent of the hotel.

Synergy also has the Holiday Inn Express in Exton and Staybridge Suites in the Brinton Lake Corporate Center in Glen Mills. It manages the Homewood Suites Valley Forge Hotel in Audubon for owner Audubon Land Development Corp.

For the Crowne Plaza, the makeover started on the ground floor, with a re-done lobby, restaurant, common areas and meeting rooms. The hotel has 7,500 square feet of meeting space, including a ballroom suitable for 250 people. Guest rooms have also been updated.

The hotel is walking distance from the new Target store, which opened last year and brought with it a host of smaller retailers, including Chipotle Grille, Potbelly Sandwich Works and California Pizza Kitchen. The Target is now an anchor on City Avenue, giving the stretch an influx of new retail.

"I'm not sure how it affects business, but it revitalizes the street. [The hotel's] guests like to walk to restaurants and Target is definitely a convenience for guests," said Field.

When Field's father developed the hotel property in the early 1980s, it was a Best Western. It had been a Holiday Inn for about two decades, but Field acknowledged that the hotel had gotten "tired" and that its reputation as a meeting place had suffered in recent years.

In addition to the newly built Target, which took over land once occupied by the Adams Mark Hotel, Keystone Property Group's nearby One Presidential Blvd. is undergoing a major overhaul that will include refurbished office space and retail on the ground floor.

The Bala Cynwyd market, which has an estimated 3 million square feet of office space, is considered desirable because it is 15 minutes to Center City, while offering lower taxes.

The Crowne Plaza also hopes to serve as spillover for Center City hotels. Rates for overnight stays average about 15 percent less than at Center City hotels, while offering free parking, Field said.

The average room rate in Center City is $168 a night, according to Smith Travel Research and PKF Consulting in Philadelphia. For a weekday stay, the Crowne Plaza offered a recent rate of $154.