Asheville – “Beer City USA” will soon have a new memorable lodging experience. The City of Asheville just approved a hotel on the South Slope with a three-story circular feature designed to imitate a beer can.
On Nov. 3, the Asheville Planning and Zoning Commission voted 6-1 in favor of the Collier Mixed-Use Development project, with Commissioner Jenifer Bubenic casting the nay vote.
Dubbed “The Brewery District,” the hotel is one feature of a three-story, 62,000 square-foot, mixed-use building on the corner of Collier Avenue and Millard Road. 13,100 feet of the development is slated for commercial space, 25 hotel rooms, seven extended stay units comprised of 10 bedrooms and three condominiums with 35 parking spaces and an internal parking garage. There is also planned restaurant, retail space and a rooftop level open to the general public.
Proposed Construction
The project first went before the Downtown Commission on Oct. 8 and the Design Review Committee on Oct. 21. Northhub LLC, the Asheville-based developer behind this project and owner of the property, has worked closely with MHAworks, a NC-based architecture firm with offices in Asheville, Durham and Greenville. The project will break ground with construction in mid to late 2022.
MHAworks previously designed the Four Points Hotel renovation and addition in downtown Asheville as well as other condominium and apartment complexes in Asheville.
Both groups work to ensure sustainable design practices. This project will be pursuing Green Globes certification, a comprehensive, science-based building sustainability rating system. 12 trees will be planted, six along Collier and six along Millard, with a payment in lieu of a tree canopy to appease the city’s new Tree Canopy Protection Ordinance. Northhub will also contribute to the City’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
Unique Features
The design’s three-story metal cylindrical feature of the brick-built, flat-iron style building at the corner of Millard and Collier is intended to represent Asheville’s beer legacy
“This newly constructed cornerstone building will be a symbol representing the gateway to Asheville’s extremely popular Brewery District. It will take a nod to the existing industrial architecture allowing for the area to continue to flourish,” Peter Alberice, Office Director of MHAworks, the project’s architect of record, said in a press release.
In an Oct. 21 Design Review Committee meeting, Alberice commented that the project’s name, “The Brewery District,” inspires the visitor to imagine the new construction as a repurposed brewing vessel. . All of the metals of the building are a soft, non-reflective pewter to age the building.
“We think it’s a fun element to have in a building of this type and think it works well with this area of downtown,” Alberice said at the meeting.
The location is mere feet away from Burial Beer Co. and in walking distance of the Wicked Weed Funkatorium, Green Man Brewery, Twin Leaf Brewing and Catawba Brewing.
In the past few years, the South Slope has undergone a transformation from a sleepy, industrial area to the vibrant epicenter of restaurants, apartments and breweries. Many call it the “Brewery District” due to the sheer number of breweries in the area that’s bounded by Patton, Asheland, Southside and Biltmore avenues.
“The Brewery District” hotel joins an influx of others approved for Downtown Asheville following a 17-month moratorium on hotel development. These include the 115 room Moxy Hotel on Biltmore Avenue and downtown’s largest building, a 313-room expansion of the Four Points Sheraton on Woodfin Street.