The city’s planning commission Tuesday recommended approval of hotelier Richard Kessler’s request for a height map amendment for a proposed multi-million dollar West River Street development.
If approved by City Council, the amendment would allow Kessler to build four structures as part of a $200 million hotel project on the site of the old Georgia Power plant.
The recommendation comes after the Metropolitan Planning Commission tabled action on the request in its March meeting following more than an hour of sometimes contentious debate.
In last month’s meeting, Kessler requested a six-story height change for the power plant and buildings west of it and a four-story height change for structures east of the plant. The MPC staff submitted an alternative recommendation for a maximum of five stories and three stories, respectively.
When Christian Sottile, lead architect on the Kessler project, indicated that would not be acceptable, Commissioner James Blackburn suggested the Kessler team look at the staff recommendation again and see whether they could come to a compromise with other stakeholders before the April meeting
On Tuesday, Kessler’s team held firm on their need for the original height amendment, leading MPC staff to recommend denial of the request, according to Ellen Harris, director of urban planning and historic preservation for the commission.
However, the full commission voted to recommend approval, Harris said.
The amendment now goes to City Council for a final decision.
The development, called Plant Riverside, will involve five structures that will add about 400 hotel rooms, 26,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space and 65,000 square feet of outdoor communal space to the waterfront.
The centerpiece of the project will be a full restoration of the existing brick, early industrial-style plant built in 1912. A 1940 addition also will be preserved.
“There will be two different hotels, operated together, but with two different themes and ideas,” Kessler said earlier, adding the parking deck will be wrapped with rooms, “so it won’t even look like a parking deck. It will look like a hotel.”
Business reporter Julia Ritchey contributed to this report.