Extended-stay hotel eyes Bordentown Township site

Candlewood Suites hotel may be built at the corner of Rising Sun Road and Bordentown-Hedding Road.

By: William Wichert
   BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP — On the vacant corner lot at Rising Sun Road and Bordentown-Hedding Road, residents soon may see a three-story hotel rise up and open its doors to weary business travelers looking for a place to stay.
   Plans to build the 81-room Candlewood Suites hotel at this intersection are among several large-scale development proposals being reviewed by the township Planning Board at its meeting tonight, Thursday, at 7:30 p.m.
   The hotel chain, which is seeking preliminary site plan approval at the meeting, is part of the InterContinental Hotels Group, the same company that owns the Crowne Plaza and the Holiday Inn hotels. With six locations in New Jersey, including one in Mount Laurel, the Candlewood Suites offers extended-stay rooms for business clientele traveling for a week at a time.
   Township Committeeman Mark Roselli said he hopes this hotel can put Bordentown on the map as a stop for travelers doing business in Trenton and Philadelphia. If the project is approved, he said, it should be followed by a miniconference center, which can now only be found in Princeton and Mount Laurel.
   "Because of our location, it’s an appropriate place to have a miniconference center and an extended-stay facility," said Mr. Roselli, who also serves on the Planning Board. "I hope this is just a precursor to where we could have someone come in and do a miniconference center."
   Aside from some drainage issues in the back of the proposed hotel, Mr. Roselli said, the Planning Board has not encountered many problems with the current plans. Although nearby truck stops and warehouses generate a lot of traffic, the Candlewood Suites guests should not add much to the congestion on the roadways, he said.
   "People who stay there aren’t going to be making a lot of daily trips," he said.
   Candlewood Suites may soon become the first extended-stay hotel in the municipality, but it would still have to pay the same hotel occupancy tax that the other 10 hotels and motels in the township started facing last year, said Chief Financial Officer Victor Cantillo.
   In January 2004, the township started collecting a 1 percent tax on the final bills of all hotel guests and the state received 7 percent, Mr. Cantillo said. In July, that percentage increased to 3 percent for the municipality and 5 percent going to the state, he said.
   Mr. Cantillo said he could not estimate how much tax revenue may be generated by the Candlewood Suites hotel, because the room rates and percent of overall occupancy are still unknown, but he said the occupancy taxes from the other 10 hotels and motels produced about $109,000 last year.
   In other business, the Planning Board is expected to vote on the final approval of the 87-unit Crescent Village development along Highbridge Road near Route 130; the preliminary approval of a 9,000-square-foot sports bar and restaurant next to Mastoris Diner on Route 130; and the preliminary approval of the Bordentown Day Care Center on Rising Sun Road.