A prominent developer is seeking to revise plans for an approved waterfront mixed-use project in Norwalk, proposing to replace one of two planned office buildings with a 130-room hotel.
Norwalk-based Spinnaker Real Estate Partners received city approval in early September for a development on a 2.72-acre property that includes a 59-unit, five-story apartment building, two 4.5-story office buildings totaling 83,000 square feet, boat slips, a boardwalk and a ground-floor restaurant.
In an updated application filed Thursday, Spinnaker is asking for permission to build a four-story, 130-room hotel with a ground-floor restaurant in place of the planned roughly 54,000-square-foot office building on the south side of the site. A smaller, 28,800-square-foot office building on the north side would remain.
Spinnaker said it changed course because it is unlikely it can lease 83,000 square feet of office space “in a commercially reasonable period,” and lenders are hesitant to provide financing due to vacancy risks.
The company said it believes demand exists for additional hotel rooms in the area and noted it has learned a proposed nearby hotel may “no longer be viable.”
Spinnaker said the proposed change would not result in “any substantive changes” to the exterior of the previously approved buildings.
“All that is proposed is to allow the southern office building on the site’s use to be approved as a hotel use,” the application said.
An email to Spinnaker was not immediately returned.
