By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
LAWRENCE — The Princeton Pike Corporate Center, located on Lenox Drive, off Princeton Pike, is gaining a hotel that may accommodate guests who are visiting the office park as well as the new Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. building that is nearing completion nearby.
The township Planning Board gave preliminary and final approval to Briad Development LLC for construction of a 107-room Hilton Garden Inn hotel behind the office building at 1000 Lenox Drive. The four-story building contains 206,000 square feet, and provides 125 parking spaces.
In addition to the guest rooms, the Hilton Garden Inn planned for the Princeton Pike Corporate Center includes a restaurant for hotel guests with indoor and outdoor seating, a small meeting room, a fitness center and an indoor swimming pool.
This is not the first hotel in Lawrence Township. There are several motels along Brunswick Pike/Route 1, including the Red Roof Inn, the Howard Johnson Motel, the Comfort Inn, the Sleep-E-Hollow Motel and Mount’s Motel.
Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun said the planned hotel “will be a nice complement to the community. It will serve a need that we have for hotel space. Hilton found a need in this market. Their research shows the market could support a hotel. Their business model contains a hotel to address that gap in the hotel market.”
“We anticipate this product will be a great addition to what Lawrence has to offer to our visitors. I think this is going to be a great amenity for the corporate residents on Lenox Drive, and for business travelers to and from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. offices (across the street on Princeton Pike),” Mr. Krawczun said.
It will also be a great amenity for visitors to Rider University, The Lawrenceville School and Lawrence Township, Mr. Krawczun said.
