First it was Duffield Street, then it was Abolitionist Way — and now it’s going to be Hotel Haven!
The builders behind Duffield Street’s half-finished Hotel Indigo revealed renderings this week for another boutique hotel on the Downtown throughway — the fourth inn planned for the block between Fulton and Willoughby streets.
V3 Hotels — owned by lodging impresario Ben Nash — will spend $20 million to erect the red brick, 19-story, 130-room hotel at 231 Duffield St. by spring of 2011, just doors away from the Indigo, and planned Sheraton and W hotels.
To make room for the planned hotel, V3 hotels leveled an antebellum house that neighbors say played a role in the Abolitionist movement.
A city-funded report denied Underground Railroad activity along Duffield Street, but the demolition of the home turned some Downtown residents hostile against the hostel.
But V3 Director of Development Greg Atkins says that his company intends to honor the anti-slavery history of the block, which the city co-named Abolitionist Way two years ago.
“We will happily do our part to honor the history,” said Atkins. “Being in a historic place is great for a hotel.”
