Alongside the giant chain hotels lining the downtown area, developers have turned their attention to something that feels a little more like home ? boutique hotels, remodeled out of existing historic buildings.
As Baltimore looks to expand its hotel space with a new Hilton hotel connected to the convention center, developers say some visitors want something a little smaller and a little more personal.
“People like to stay in a more homey environment,” said John Voneiff of developer ARCWheeler?s mid-Atlantic office in Baltimore. “[They want] something that?s not so big … where it?s more homey, they sit around at night and drink wine, and there?s a fireplace.”
ARCWheeler is developing part of the B&O Building on Charles Street into a208-room Kimpton hotel, part of a chain of small boutique hotels. Voneiff said renovations would preserve the building?s historically important features and won?t touch the exterior of the building or its noted lobby.
History is also an attraction to the 1840s Carrollton Inn on Albemarle Street, which opened 13 of its 24 planned rooms earlier this month. The series of row houses was originally purchased by the Baltimore City Life Museums in 1983. When the museums closed in 2003, new owner Anne Pomykala decided to convert the buildings and their shady courtyard into a bed and breakfast.
“It?s nice to still get the feeling of downtown Baltimore,” manager Miranda Winters said. “It kind of makes you forget you?re in the hustle and bustle of the city, but still be close to the attractions of the Inner Harbor and Fells Point.”
Several more small hotel projects are under way or in the pipeline, according to Mike Evitts, spokesman for the Downtown Partnership. The rise of boutique hotels is the result of several factors, he said, including Baltimore?s location, lack of existing hotel rooms and the interest of out-of-town investors.
Evitts said the real estate industry has seen buyers turn away from cookie-cutter suburban properties, and he said that same sentiment is behind the interest in smaller hotels.
“We?re finding that carried over into a boutique hotel experience,” he said. “Even if it?s owned by a corporate parent, they want something unique to the city, they want to feel like they?re getting personal treatment.”
Voneiff said the presence of larger hotels wouldn?t cut into boutique operations and drew a parallel to the city?s restaurant industry.
“The convention center hotel will stimulate the boutique hotel business … just like all the other restaurants stimulated restaurants in Little Italy,” he said. “It was the reverse, it actually helped them ? same thing here.”
