The City of Tempe recently announced that a new hotel will soon break ground at Fifth and Forest.
Yep, a shiny new Residence Inn by Marriott will soon be joining the list of “places to stay along the light rail line.” This 173 room hotel will open in late 2013/early 2014.
Where is Fifth and Forest you say? Well, it happens to be right across the street from the Tempe Transit Center AND just east of Mill Avenue. A pretty cool location, if you ask me.
Tempe Transportation Center – Fifth & Forest
“The new Residence Inn hotel will feature guest suites containing fully-equipped kitchens and will offer state-of-the-art amenities, including an outdoor rooftop pool and fire pit with panoramic views of downtown, about 3,500 square feet of meeting space and 5,700 square feet of ground-level retail space.”
The Marriott will be just a block from the Tempe Mission Palms and will join them in allowing people the convenience of staying in the Mill Avenue area, while having great access to the airport and downtown Phoenix via an easy and affordable light rail ride. The new place sounds cool, as it will have “fully-equipped kitchens and will offer state-of-the-art amenities, including an outdoor rooftop pool and fire pit with panoramic views of downtown.”
As cool as the hotel sounds, it’s the location, location, location that makes us wonder why the couple of news releases we have seen make little to no mention about the proximity to the light rail and transit lines. ( Bus, Orbit, etc. ) As an “extended stay” type of product, one just might think that people visiting for a conference or to visit an ASU student might want a convenient way to see the sights via the trains. Maybe it’s just me, but I think this spot SCREAMS transit oriented development. Helllooo…
From the photo and information on the Tempe.gov site, we learn that the hotel will be 11 stories tall. This should allow for some pretty sweet views of the mountains to the north, Sun Devil Stadium to the east, and the Mill Avenue district to the west.
It’s pretty impressive to see all of the construction activity in this area. Just a block east there is a new 300 unit apartment building under construction, and there is the new Hayden Ferry project said to be underway by year’s end.
As you can see by the map below, Fifth and Forest is just south of the light rail station at Veterans Way. ( Sun Devil Stadium station ) You know the site, right? It’s where Bandersnatch once stood, back in tha’ day.
View Hotels near light rail in a larger map
Without a doubt, there is a ton to do in the area. Having a light rail station right across the street, makes the place even more appealing.
The Residence Inn reflects a growing level of interest among hotel developers in the downtown – Tempe spokeswoman Kris Baxter-Ging
Soon, even more visitors to our great state will be “rockin’ the Rail Life.”
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