CAPE MAY — The sixth floor of the Marquis de Lafayette Hotel, 501 Beach Avenue, the former Pelican Club restaurant, was approved by the city’s Planning Board Dec 11 for conversion into the 10 hotels rooms.
The restaurant, called the Top of the Marq in an earlier incarnation, was known for its panoramic ocean views.
While the Marquis de Lafayette operates as a full service hotel, its rooms are considered condominiums and owned by investors.
The Marquis de Lafayette Condominium Association received a waiver from the board for the need of a site plan.
Attorney James Swift, representing the association, said the change would eliminate a 7,000 square foot restaurant and replace it with condo hotel units, a permitted use in the zone.
The Marquis de Lafayette received approval from the city’s Historic Preservation Commission in 2005 for five, 1,200 square foot units with seven-foot tall windows. That plan was scaled back.
Swift said the condo-hotel use would eliminate hundreds of cars and thousands of people that visited the restaurant. He said the conversion would have no impact on the footprint of the building with the bulk of construction taking place in the interior.
The new floor of hotel rooms will match 77 units on the lower floors, said Architect William McLees. Decks will be built on the rear of the sixth floor.
He said 96 parking spaces would be available at the hotel to accommodate the 10 additional rooms for a total of 84 bedrooms. A total of 12 spaces would be available for employees.
City Engineer Marc DeBlasio determined floor area ratio and Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) regulations did not apply since the building is operated as a hotel. He said the association needed a site plan waiver from the county Planning Board since it is located on a county-owned road.
Councilwoman Linda Steenrod questioned if 25 new jobs were created at the hotel, would it would trigger a requirement for affordable housing unit.
Marquis de Lafayette General Manager Blair Lohmeyer testified the conversion from a restaurant hotel rooms would result in a reduction of 23 employees.
During public comment, New York Avenue resident Hunter Cochran asked the number of current hotel employees.
In summer, the hotel may have as many as 30 employees, answered Lohmeyer.
Cochran said the plan did not offer adequate parking spaces and the expanded hotel required 114 spaces rather than 96, calculating one space per room and one space per employee.
Swift said most of their employees could not afford to own a car and therefore walked, biked or rode the bus to work. He said the association estimated no more than 10 employee cars would be parked on the property during a shift.
If 13 to 14 employees were working a shift, no more than eight cars would be present, said Swift.
DeBlasio said calculations for employee parking are based on the highest shift.
Cochran said the hotel would have a deficit of two spaces based on 14 employees.
Planning Board Attorney George Neidig asked the applicants if they “could live with 12 employees per shift” which would be made a condition of approval.Lohmeyer agreed to that number.
