A major face-lift is planned for a budget hotel in Scottsdale that will reconfigure the property near a spring training facility into an upscale boutique hotel.
The hotel, a former Days Inn and Suites, is now called Independence 47. Its owner plans to upgrade the property to become a luxury hotel in the area near the Talking Stick Entertainment District.
The project, called the George, will include keeping 34 of the existing rooms at the hotel and adding 50 more, for a total of 84 rooms. The hotel is named after George Scott, the brother of Scottsdale’s founder, Winfield Scott, representatives for the project said at a Development Review Board meeting.
Andre Golnazarian, the owner of the hotel, bought it two years ago for $6 million, according to real estate database Vizzda.
The hotel is west of Pima Road between Indian Bend Road and Via de Ventura. It is across the street from Great Wolf Lodge and Salt River Fields at Talking Stick.
The location near the growing Talking Stick Entertainment District and the building’s potential drew him to the site, Golnazarian said.
“The hotel really hasn’t been touched since it was built,” he said. “We can turn it into a boutique, luxury hotel.”
Some rooms were used for unhoused people
The hotel is also where Scottsdale has been renting 10 rooms to house people experiencing homelessness, a program that will continue for the next year, Golnazarian said. The original agreement was for one year, lasting until September 2023, but Golnazarian and the city extended the agreement another year until September 2024.
At no point during the construction will the entire hotel be shut down, he said, so people will be able to continue to use rooms during the process. Construction is planned to be done on one-third of the rooms at a time.
A city spokesperson confirmed that the renovation will not affect the temporary bridge housing program for the duration of the contract.
Golnazarian’s background is mostly in rehabilitating old apartment buildings, and he was interested in the hotel because the site has both hotel and multifamily uses. After researching what would be best there, he decided to focus on upgrading and adding to the hotel portion.
Some pieces will be razed, others renovated
One building on the site, a one-story, 12-room building, will be demolished and redeveloped for the 50 new rooms in a three-story building. A new outdoor cafe, fitness studio and pool will also be built.
The existing pool on the site will remain, and a new pool and outdoor common area will be added, which is planned to be shared by hotel guests and residents of the condominium building north of the hotel.
“This former Days Inn is transitioning from a modest, budget motel to a luxury boutique hotel, with an emphasis on wellness and health,” the development team wrote in a submission to the city.
Golnazarian said the hotel will cater to visitors who want to come for spring training or other activities, as well as people who want to stay for an extended period, like the whole Cactus League season.
The Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies call Salt River Fields home in the spring.
The Scottsdale City Council approved a conditional use permit for the new hotel in late August, and the city’s Development Review Board approved the project on Sept. 7.
Construction is planned to begin after spring training ends in 2024, Golnazarian said.
The project will cost about $20 million to complete, he said, and aims to make the hotel very modern and up to date.
Previous plans never materialized
The site was slated for redevelopment before, in a project that never came to fruition. A plan was approved in 2017 to build a 100-room Hyatt Place hotel there.
The development would have razed the entire Days Inn and built the new hotel from the ground up, unlike the new project that reuses some of the existing building.
Reach the reporter at cvanek@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @CorinaVanek.
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