By Michele Richinick

Decades ago Northeastern supported the establishment of buildings on a piece of Northeastern land that would be part of an economic development component to create jobs for people in the neighborhoods surrounding campus. Northeastern is presently attempting to pass a plan that will pursue the development of a hotel. Northeastern has been working with the Community Task Force in this economic development project, known as Parcel 18. The Task Force has been developing land and creating job opportunities in the community since the 1960s.

Parcel 18 consists of five units of land, including the Renaissance parking garage and the 1,200 bed residence hall currently being constructed. The plot reserved for the hotel is the last piece of Parcel 18 land available for development. Proponents say it’ll bring generous economic benefits to the community.

“We agreed that if Northeastern bought the land we wouldn’t just put out buildings there, we would put a hotel in there,” said Joseph Warren, the special assistant to the director of government relations and community affairs at Northeastern. “It took six or seven years to later make a deal that we would build a residence hall first but a hotel right after it.” Jeff Doggett, the director of government relations and community affairs at Northeastern, has participated in numerous community meetings on Parcel 18 development. He did not return requests for comment.

Northeastern and the city of Boston organized a competition to decide what kind of development to use on Parcel 18. A local community group had the most popular idea, which involved building a hotel to generate 50 to 60 permanent jobs for people in the community within walking distance of the building, Warren said. “The minority population put up their own money, some even remortgaged their houses to be a part of the equity share in this development,” Warren said.

In order to develop the hotel plans, Northeastern has been working with the New Castle Group of developers, which has made plans to build an extended-stay hotel, Warren said. The top floors of the hotel would have small apartments to lease out to people who need to stay in the area for long periods of time.

“This unique hotel would be for people who have a relative at Mass. General Hospital or Brigham and Women’s Hospital who need to stay there for about a month,” Warren said. “There are no extended stay hotels now that they can get for a decent rate if you want to be with a loved one at hospitals in the area. No one else had done this before and the Task Force liked the idea.”

The hotel will be a hotel, with community rooms people can use for meetings and various functions, a health club accessible to the community and possibly a coffee shop, Warren said.

Although the hotel development is still a controversial issue between the university and elected officials, Warren said the hotel is embraced by the community.

“We are looking forward to the development of the hotel, but there is always controversy,” Warren said. “The Parcel 18 Task Force is still very close to us, but some elected officials who have been involved a long time, too, want to see that it is done correctly. Northeastern has the land, we signed a lease and we want to build it, but we still have to help elected officials who are suspicious of us to feel comfortable to go forward.”

Some local residents have said the hotel is the economic anchor the community has been waiting on for more than 30 years.

“We will be talking with elected officials and developers to hopefully move forward with the development of the hotel despite differences,” Warren said.

The New Castle Group has designed the hotel and the city has looked at it for approval, Warren said. It will take about another eight to 10 months to obtain the approval before the developers can break ground, he said.

Despite many students’ lack of awareness about this development, some said they were in favor of creating jobs for the community.

“If [the hotel] is something that would promote more work/study jobs, then I think it would be a positive thing,” said Alex Vest, a junior mechanical engineering technology major. “It may also provide housing for middlers and [other upperclassmen] that can’t get on-campus housing anymore. I trust that the university is doing it for a beneficial reason, and in the end, I really don’t care if there is a hotel near or on campus.” Others, like Eric Frankenberg, a freshman music industry major, did not think the establishment of a hotel on campus would immensely affect students.

“The noise from construction would be a nuisance, but in the long term, students’ day-to-day activities wouldn’t be impacted,” he said. “It would benefit the city of Boston without negatively influencing Northeastern students.”

Northeastern administrators involved with Parcel 18 remain optimistic.

“If I had to make a wild guess, I would say it is something that has got to happen,” Warren said. “It has been 30 years in the making. Northeastern wants it to happen and the community wants it to happen.”