Rehearsal dinners, not wedding receptions, will be able to take place in developer Steve Zemo’s 48-room hotel on Old Quarry Road.
Mr. Zemo, who purchased five acres of old Schlumberger land for $1.25 million last year, presented his pre-submission plans for a three-story hotel and three other buildings to the Planning and Zoning Commission Tuesday night.
“After a lot if exploration of a full-scale banquet facility and given its size requirements and parking requirements and ancillary outdoor space needs it just didn’t work,” Mr. Zemo explained in an email Tuesday night. “We feel the smaller venue works well and fulfills the need for smaller gatherings and conferences.”
The smaller “garden room” will fit 50 to 70 people, he said.
Originally, the site plan called for three building, not four, and for a big-venue banquet hall that could host everything from 200-person galas to large-sized wedding parties.
Mr. Zemo was turned off on that idea after having discussions with R&M, a company that manages banquet facilities.
“They said that average weddings include 167 people,” he said. “They said, ‘Steve, you don’t want to do this.’”
The project features a road that will run straight through the property down from Old Quarry Road to what Mr. Zemo insisted “won’t be a flag hotel.”
The hotel will have 111 parking spaces, a majority of which will be underneath the building.
First Selectman Rudy Marconi added that he heard from Mr. Zemo at the beginning of last week about the change of plans.
“He was informed that the catering facility needed to be much larger than he planned and that the topography of the land did not lend itself to that need,” he said.
A backup plan?
While Mr. Zemo’s plans won’t go ahead with a big banquet facility, not all is lost for residents who were looking forward to having such a space built in town.
John Royce, the owner of Candlewood Inn in Brookfield, is looking to build such a project on the 12 to 13 acres of Schlumberger land that’s still available for purchase — the same parcel that has been part of negotiating talks between the town and a nameless art collector since the land was bought back in 2011.
Mr. Zemo referred Mr. Royce to the town, and the two sides appear to have mutual interest.
“On Friday, Mr. Royce dropped off an offer and we had a brief conversation,” Mr. Marconi wrote in an email Tuesday.
Mr. Zemo discussed the concept of another banquet hall across the street from his hotel Tuesday night in front of the planners, but didn’t seem too worried about it.
“We can still do smaller events and fulfill that function,” he said.
Other features
Also on Mr. Zemo’s property is a mixed-used office building with offices on the first floor and 11 apartments on top of them on the second and third floors, a general two-story office building, and a four-story self-storage facility that will also feature parking underneath.
In total, the four buildings will have 214 spaces, including eight handicapped spots, and 40% of them will be underground.
“The parking plan is efficient so cars don’t get weathered,” Mr. Zemo said. “It wasn’t cheap.”
Commissioner John Katz called the underground parking “the star feature of the development.”
Timeline
Mr. Zemo said he hopes to submit full plans to the commission by June, but could wait until September to unveil the entire application.
At Tuesday’s meeting, he didn’t bring in any drawings of the proposed buildings, electing to wait to show them to the commission at a later date.
Town Planner Betty Brosius suggested that he bring her a schedule of how he’d phase the construction process.
“It’s important to phase out some things,” she said. “There’s a potential to disturb some areas if you go about it all at once, and that’s not recommended.
“You’re welcome to come see me before the site plan meeting,” she added. “Phasing is critical, the nuts and bolts of any application.”
Mr. Zemo agreed to take the project in steps.
“Because of the size of the project,” he said. “It’s going to be a multi-year build-up, and you’ll see that in the master plan.”
Chairwoman Rebecca Mucchetti expressed concern about the construction’s impact on the town’s sewer plant, but overall showed general interest in the project.
“You can come back if you’re not sure how something will be received,” she said.