The Other Housing Crunch Making Room at the Inn

Author: Greg Duggan

"Where I am going to stay?" is a thought that likely crosses the mind of every Middlebury College parent at least once a year, from Fall Family Weekends to Commencement. Tourists flocking to Vermont to enjoy the fall foliage may even steer clear of Middlebury, convinced that, with all the visitors to the College, they could never book one of the town's coveted rooms. One of the perennial dilemmas facing visitors has been the lack of suitable space.

Many argue, however, that the opening of Courtyard by Mariott on Route 7 in Middlebury will change all this.

After some resistance from local residents and business owners, construction began on Middlebury's Courtyard by Marriott a year ago, and the town's newest lodging facility plans to open its doors in November of this year. A contrast to the bed and breakfasts and inns more typical of the area, the Courtyard will supply a name-brand hotel to the Middlebury area. Currently, the closest large, nationally-known hotels are 45 minutes to an hour away in Burlington and Rutland. While the new hotel may, upon first consideration, seem to bring a new form of competition to the smaller lodging facilities, most people in town involved with tourism feel the addition of a name-brand hotel will only help local business.

Although the hotel has only been visible in the town since last fall, the construction process actually began several years ago when applications for building permits were filed in the fall of 1998. At that time, plans for two hotels were proposed to the Middlebury Planning Commission almost simultaneously. Developers submitted plans for hotels with 80 to 90 rooms, both of which would be built in the genre of a Comfort Inn or Hampton Inn. A local businessman, Tony Neri, initially developed the site that would go on to become the Courtyard. He sold the site to Burlington developer Antonio Pomerleau. Pomerleau subsequently leased the land to a Maryland-based organization, Creative Hotel Associates (CHA), which owns and operates a number of hotels in college towns such as Gainesville, Fla., Albuquerque, N.M., and Colorado Springs, Colo. CHA signed a franchise agreement with Marriott to call the hotel a Courtyard.

Initially, the plans for the new hotels were rejected by Middlebury's Planning Commission because their generic characteristics failed to meet the standards required by the Town Plan, the Zoning Ordinance and other regulations. Middlebury Town Planner Fred Dunnington explained the original rejection of the hotels by saying, "There's been a tradition of trying to push for a higher quality of development, something that is more in keeping with Vermont-like buildings." The developers of both hotels filed an appeal, and during that time the Courtyard builders modified their plans to fit the atmosphere and architecture of Middlebury. The Planning Commission then approved the Courtyard, but once again rejected the other proposed hotel, which had refused to change its design.

When the hotels were first proposed, they met some opposition from citizens and local businesses. While the approval of building permits lies in the hands of the town's Planning Commission, townspeople can form groups to appeal construction and ensure that the Planning Commission is obeying the Town Plan and zoning ordinances. In the case of the two hotels seeking permits in the fall of 1998, business owners, including innkeepers and owners of bed and breakfasts, formed a petition group to protest the construction of the larger hotel. Because of the participation of lodging facility owners, the group's motives were questionable as to whether the petition was simply a way to keep competition from entering the local lodging industry. Dunnington said the group was also concerned about legitimate issues such as the character of the hotels, and "in the end, their contribution made a significant difference in terms of the appearance of the hotel."

When completed, the Courtyard will supply an additional 89 rooms to the town of Middlebury. About 3,200 rooms exist in Addison County and neighboring Chittenden County, although hotels in Burlington and South Burlington comprise 62 percent of these rooms. Middlebury has only 155 rooms - 4.5 percent of the regional supply - and visitors often fall victim to this lack of space during busy periods such as graduation, parent weekends, and fall foliage season. Parents and other visitors to the College routinely seek lodging in surrounding towns, occasionally as far away as Rutland or Burlington. The Courtyard will also provide another option for visitors such as sports teams, prospective students, visiting professors and others who do not need or even want the experience offered by an inn.

Even innkeepers and bed and breakfast owners do not seem threatened by the presence of the Courtyard. Jim Caple, owner of the Swift House Inn, acknowledged the lack of rooms in Middlebury. "There was clearly a need to add some additional rooms to the area," he said. "There are many weekends where ... we and several other local inns are turning away guests."

Caple does not believe the Courtyard will detract any business from the smaller, more intimate lodging facilities, which often attract visitors because of the personalized treatment they offer. Tracey Getty-Sutton, innkeeper at the Waybury Inn feels similarly, saying, "People who are traditional and want to [find] the inn experience will still hunt us down. I think the people who are just in for an overnight to see their kids for a short period of time and won't be in their room a lot won't care where they stay."

Marguerite Senecal, from the Addison County Chamber of Commerce, said the Courtyard will only complement the business fostered by inns and bed and breakfasts by offering a different type of lodging experience. Morgan Attwood, general manager of the Courtyard, agreed with the supportive attitude found among his peers in the Middlebury lodging industry. "We're coming to Middlebury to be a contributing and productive member of the community, not a disruptive force. By working with other lodging product owners ... we are able to refer business when we can't accommodate it or when the guest is looking for a different lodging experience thanwe can offer."

The presence of the Courtyard will likely benefit other local businesses. The extra people who will be able to stay in town will probably eat in local restaurants and shop at nearby stores. As Caple said, "The addition of the Marriott is going to enhance the town of Middlebury itself. Instead of ... guests traveling to Burlington and Rutland, they are now going to be staying in Middlebury, and since those people will be staying in Middlebury, they're going to be dining here locally, they're going to be shopping locally, and they're going to be spending more time in the town and discovering a lot of the attributes Middlebury has."

Even before it has opened, the Courtyard has begun to make its impact on the Middlebury community. When the hotel began accepting reservations for 2004 graduation, it filled up within a week. Most other lodging facilities have booked all of their rooms as well.