BERLIN — Months after announcing that a large hotel franchise is eyeing Berlin for its next location, the search for an appropriate property continues.
The former front-runner site is not as favored now as it was in the spring, but the hotel franchise is still interested in opening in Berlin or the surrounding area, according to Bill Badger, director of Economic Development for Worcester County.
In May, it was revealed that Cobblestone Hotels, a mutli-state hospitality brand specializing in 32- to 44-room hotels, is considering opening lodgings in Berlin off of Route 113 near the intersection of Germantown Road.
Badger said this week the area could still see a hotel but that the county is working with Cobblestone to showcase a few other spots around Worcester.
“We are, for a variety of reasons, going to be looking at some other sites as well. So the site search is still undetermined but the good news is that we are looking at other properties in Berlin, and there have been some other discussions as of this week. So there’s still a very active interest in Berlin for Cobblestone,” Badger said.
The company is considering other properties in the surrounding area however, such as in the Ocean Pines market.
As for why the previously favored location off Route 113 has fallen from the top of the list, Badger said that Cobblestone is just carefully weighing its options at this point and nothing is off of the table.
“Things run hot and cold. Right now that’s a little cold,” he said. “We’re looking at some other potential properties that are a little warmer right now.”
Badger added that just this week another unidentified property owner has come forward expressing an interest for a possible Cobblestone hotel in Worcester.
After finding an appropriate location for a hotel, there will still be a need to organize one or more serious investors who will be willing to generate some early capital for the project. Tracking down the perfect site has caused a small amount of schedule slippage but Badger is confident that initial hopes of having a hotel ready for next season are viable.
“Our original goal was to try to get everything buttoned up so that the construction could happen before the next season so that’s still our goal,” he said. “We’re a little behind now but once you have a site and have the investors lined up then it moves pretty quickly but that’s the hard part so we’re still in the hard part of that.”