Bowling Green Daily News | February 21, 2020
David Chandler’s The Hub development on Lovers Lane may have been slowed by the recent wet weather, but it picked up some steam Wednesday.
In unanimous votes, Warren County’s Urban Growth Design Review Board approved overlay development plans for the 196-room Embassy Suites hotel/convention center combination and for the 40-unit cottage portion of The Hub’s multifamily residential development.
The cottages, which will be built on a 4.05-acre tract at the back of the 103-acre development, will complete the residential portion that is already underway.
The five-story hotel, which will include a 3,600-square-foot restaurant and an attached 12,161-square-foot convention center close to Lovers Lane, will be the centerpiece of The Hub on an 8.05-acre tract.
Chandler hopes to break ground on the $45 million hotel in “four to six weeks” and projects it will be completed in 18 to 24 months.
“The weather has been our biggest opponent so far,” said Chandler, who has developed a number of hotels and other commercial properties in Bowling Green and other communities. “I’m pleased that the Design Review Board was excited about the project.”
In the works since 2017, The Hub may be Chandler’s most ambitious project to date. Located on the former Roy Cooksey farm next to the Lovers Lane Soccer Complex, it will include 590 multifamily residential units along with the hotel, a medical component and a three-story corporate center for American Bank & Trust.
Chandler said the hotel will be attached to a 500-seat convention center that he says will be similar in size to Knicely Conference Center on Nashville Road.
He isn’t ready to reveal the restaurant that will locate in the hotel, but he said: “It will be something very nice and attractive to hotel guests and local residents alike.”
The cottage development will consist of eight buildings of five units each. The one-bedroom units will have carports and will be part of the total multifamily portion that will include a 7,500-square-foot swimming pool, a putting green, a walking path and other amenities.
The apartments currently being built will be a mix of types and will carry a rental price tag of $750 to $1,400 per month.
“Those buildings are in the framing process now,” Chandler said. “We hope to have units available by mid-summer.”
Chandler called the cottages “the nicest product” of the multifamily development and said they will rent for about $1,500 per month.
Other aspects of The Hub are coming together, Chandler said.
“The Medical Center is in the planning stages for their facility,” he said. “American Bank & Trust broke ground in the fall and will be going vertical with that building in just a few weeks.”