Raleigh OKs 4-star hotel

Marriott to stick with faux stucco

It took four months, steamed tempers and a book's worth of a yakking, but Raleigh leaders ironed out a deal Tuesday for a new four-star hotel downtown.

Faux stucco is a go.

By a 5-3 vote, the City Council set the Marriott on a path to break ground this spring, overruling critics who questioned its quality and made EIFS a new word in Raleigh's vocabulary.

"There may be someone who comes along in two, three or five years and does something better," said Mayor Charles Meeker. "In the meantime, this does raise the bar."

Council members said they were impressed that the Marriott design team made 22 changes in the past 120 days, including trimming back the synthetic stucco to 25 percent of the hotel's exterior, all of it on the upper floors.

"They have reduced the EIFS to an acceptable level, and I look forward to the opening of a four-star hotel," said Councilwoman Joyce Kekas, who returned to the council after surgery Tuesday to cast the deciding vote. "Most of the EIFS problems have been with residential construction."

The Marriott will rise in the center of Raleigh's complicated and expensive downtown experiment, connecting the $215 million convention center with the eye-opening art installation proposed by Spanish sculptor Jaume Plensa.

The $70-plus million hotel, supported by a $20 million investment from Raleigh taxpayers, drew rare scrutiny.

Today's 5-3 vote caps countless hours spent dissecting the hotel, from its lobby to its air-conditioning units. Most of that dissection, though, focused on EIFS, or the synthetic stucco pronounced EE-fus.

Time-consuming task

Between the council, the architects, the developers and the attorneys, the time and energy devoted to this building's design rivals the hours spent last year on Raleigh's $457 million budget.

Talks over the Marriott showed that differences among council members can be drawn along far more complex lines than political parties.

To Councilman James West, spending so much time fussing over the details of a single, private building short-changed more worthwhile topics: youth programs and crime in the Southeast.

To Councilman Thomas Crowder, the deal was Raleigh's chance to show that it is a first-class city that deserves a first-class hotel. For him, guaranteeing a lasting downtown building was worth shedding a few niceties with developers.

He has long maintained that the Atlanta-based hotel developer Noble Investment promised brick, stone, metal and glass -- not EIFS.

"It is very clear what the intention was, and we're not getting that," Crowder said. "The taxpayers are not getting that."

Most of all, the Marriott squabble showed the depth of interest in Raleigh's downtown revival, and it hints of intense debate to come before all the projects come together in 2008.

Joining West and Meeker in voting for the project were council members Jessie Taliaferro, Kekas and Philip Isley. Those opposed, in addition to Crowder, were council members Russ Stephenson and Tommy Craven.

A few variables remain

The council's support depends on a new main entrance on the Cabarrus Street side. Kieran Shanahan, a former council member and the attorney representing Noble Investment, said it butts up against Plensa's art.

Also, Taliaferro asked that the windows be redesigned so they will be taller and less boxy. Many other items, including "art-type elements" on the Lenoir Street side, will be approved by Planning Director Mitchell Silver.

Despite the tinkering that remains, Shanahan expected construction to begin soon.

"We're going to start moving dirt," he said.