Duball Rockville recognized that a hotel in the downtown has long been on the City's wish list since the Visioning Rockville 2000 project and is highlighted as very desirable in the Town Center Master Plan. The Mayor and Council included in the PDP Approvals for the Duball site specifically that a hotel was a permitted use that could be included in addition to the other approvals on the site.
Therefore, although Duball Rockville has City approvals in hand for their two residential buildings in front of the Regal Theatre, they believed the aloft Hotel was an important and unique opportunity for Rockville and worked hard to incorporate the hotel with their existing approvals.
The hotel has been incorporated into the west building between Maryland Avenue and Renaissance Street. No changes were made to the height, massing, setback, streetscape, and landscaping of the approved building. The size of the residential dwelling units was modified to accommodate the space for the hotel. Here is the view of the hotel from Renaissance Street.
The hotel guest rooms are located in the base of the building and one of the original residential lobbies that fronted on Renaissance Street was converted to the hotel lobby. Since the aloft Hotel is a limited service hotel it provides a great accessible hotel lounge at street level on Renaissance Street, a fitness center, business center, and two board rooms (800 sf total) for business guests. An additional parking level has been designed below the west building to provide the parking for the hotel.