Studio Res at Marriott second hotel pitched for Outlet Drive near Topgolf
After about a year-and-a-half ago, developers for the hotel planned next to Topgolf had returned with a new site plan, new owners and new name for the hotel, Studio Res at Marriott.
Land Development Solutions, Knoxville civil engineering consultants, submitted the new site plan to Town planners during their Staff/Developer meeting in Farragut Community Center Tuesday, June 4.
“Hotels are good; good for the Town,” Community Development director Mark Shipley said
“There was a site plan approved for what was called Skor Hotel (along) Outlet Drive, probably about a year-and-a-half ago now,” Shipley said. “This is property just to the east of Topgolf.”
“When you’re standing at Topgolf and you’re hitting your golf balls, that (west side of the hotel building) is what you’ll see,” said Chad Brown, design engineer with Land Development Solutions.
“They kind of revamped that (original site plan),” Shipley said. “I think, now, it’s a Marriott hotel. They made some minor modifications to the site plan,” of which Shipley said the staff had no objections.
“We’re trying to move pretty quickly now (to start construction),” said Bruce Collins, vice president of development and construction with Rosemont Holdings. “It’s taken us a long time to get to this point. That old Skor brand kind of died … so we had to go find a different brand, and we like the Marriott products. Everything they have on the market is a nice product.
“They call it an extended stay,” he added. “They also call it a residence inn. We look for the customers who are like seven- to 29-days stay.
“You have a lot of people who are coming in for projects that stay more than two or three nights. They may stay a week or two.”
Originally, the hotel had 108 units, which is expanding to 124 units.
“The hotel footprint is still the same,” Shipley said. “It’s just the rooms are reconfigured.
“But to accommodate the additional rooms, they’re adding a new row of parking on the east part of the property,” he added, noting one of the accesses would tie into whatever is developed in an area before one gets to a detention basin to the east.
“We would love to have some sort of restaurant there,” Collins said.
“The basin was created with size to accommodate the entire build-out of this entire parcel,” he added. “The detention will be part of the construction.”
Additionally, Shipley said the developers made some modifications to the building itself.
“In this zoning district, the Outlet Drive Entertainment/Employment District masonry percentages (requirements) are lower,” he said. “It’s at 25 percent for this size; whereas, outside of that part of Town, that zoning district is 75 percent masonry.”
“When we created this Outlet Drive Entertainment/Employment District, we kind of looked at the surrounding plan of development,” Shipley added. “There’s a lot of warehousing there, especially in the county part of Outlet Drive; and this area is along the Interstate (40/75) and a little bit physically detached from the rest of the Town, so we felt the masonry percentage wasn’t quite as critical there.”
The developers are proposing a four-story structure, which exceeds the 25 percent masonry “probably by a few percentages,” Shipley said.
It also features earth-tone colors.
“We’re over 30 percent on (the masonry),” Collins said.
“It’s really a pretty simple site plan,” Shipley said. “To me, this is a better-looking building. I think it’s an improvement.”
The site plan is expected to go before Farragut Municipal Planning Commission at its Thursday, June 20, meeting.
Mayor Ron Williams, who sits on FMPC, asked about plans for signage. Collins said a sign is planned on the front and a smaller sign is sought at the pedestrian entrance.
“We do have a panel we are allowed at the Farragut Station sign,” the engineer added.
