Those planning to visit colleges and hospitals in University City for extended periods of time will soon have a new lodging option.
Campus Apartments broke ground Thursday at 4109 Walnut St. for a new Hilton Homewood Suites hotel.
Scheduled to be completed by the spring of 2012, the 136-room hotel will offer lodgers extended-stay accommodations — which, with full kitchens as well as dining and work spaces, differ from traditional hotel rooms. Homewood Suites will also have an indoor pool and fitness facility.
Developers intend to create about 300 full-time and temporary jobs with the project’s construction and eventual operation.
Meagan Sloan, a spokeswoman from Campus Apartments’ communications company, the Brownstein Group, said the hotel is the first for Campus Apartments in Philadelphia. She said the company “definitely saw the need” for additional places for visitors to stay while in the area.
The project — which will cost an estimated $50 million — is designed under the guidelines of LEED certification standards, making it a sustainable and energy-efficient building.
In 2009, developers announced they planned to build the hotel at 40th and Pine streets. They changed locations after nearby residents expressed concerns that the building would harm the neighborhood’s identity. The project site was then moved to Walnut Street to fit in better with the road’s commercial aesthetic.
The site will have two phases of construction — completing the hotel and erecting an adjacent 150,000 square foot office building.
Homewood Suites will join several other hotels in the area, including the Sheraton Philadelphia University City Hotel at 36th and Chestnut streets and the Hilton Inn at Penn, located at 3600 Sansom St. However, it is the first in the area to offer extended-stay accommodations.
