ASHLAND — A developer out of Columbus has offered to buy the former, vacant Pump House building in order to renovate the existing structure into a “boutique hotel” with up to 70 rooms, according to Ashland Mayor Matt Miller.
Miller said the developer is affiliated with a hotel franchise, but declined to identify which one.
If the developer agrees to terms in the next couple days, Miller said Ashland City Council would vote on the purchase agreement as soon as its next meeting on Feb. 7.
The vacant, 44,000 square-foot building was deeded to the city on Jan. 13, according to real estate records. The plan, until now, has been for the city to buy the building from Ashland County commissioners in order to resell it to Vision Development, who would tear it down to build an apartment complex.
Vision Development agreed to purchase the property for $300,000, which is around the amount Ashland County commissioners have spent on the building since purchasing it in September 2020.
Now, the unnamed hotel developer could purchase the property from the city for a renegotiated sale price, Miller said.
“We’re still negotiating the sale price,” the mayor said, declining to provide further details. “But we have no concern we’ll lose any money on the deal.”
Should the developer agree to renovate the Pump House building into a hotel, the city would offer a Community Reinvestment Act tax incentive, Miller said. In Ashland, CRA’s have historically offered developers a 50% discount to the newly-assessed value of the property that has been renovated.
The mayor first made the new direction for the property public during his “state of the city” address held at Ashland High School’s Archer Auditorium.
In an interview with Ashland Source, Miller said he had been discussing possible locations for hotels out near the U.S. 250 Route and Interstate 71 interchange.
“During that exchange, I told them how much we would love to have a hotel in the Pump House District, and so they agreed to tour it,” Miller said.
A couple months later, the developer sent the firm’s principal investor and an architect to tour the vacant Pump House building, Miller said.
The building’s dilapidated condition has been cited as reasoning behind the county’s decision to not renovate it, saying it would cost millions. A county document revealed a firm estimated renovations costing $13.8 million.
“(The hotel developer) knows of the building’s condition. He made the offer after going through it,” Miller said.
Since selling the property, the county has salvaged utility equipment such as a boiler, electrical panels and a fire sprinkler control system to use for other construction projects. The Ashland County Historical Society has also walked through the building to claim certain items of historical significance.
Miller said the hotel developer made an offer on the vacant Pump House building, but that he is also interested in building a separate hotel out near Interstate 71.
“He’s interested in both locations for two separate projects, and they would be two distinct products,” he said.
Currently, the city of Ashland has six hotel options with most of them located near the Interstate 71 interchange. The closest accommodations to downtown Ashland is Surrey Inn, who presently offer rooms to guests starting at $59 a night.
The mayor has said a hotel located in downtown Ashland would be utilized by Ashland University guests, as well as area business guests.
“Folks would be in a walkable distance to Main Street — to restaurants and so on,” Miller said in an Ashland Source article about the Hess & Clark developer, John Pacheco, who is considering changing course on that property, just north of the former Pump House building.
When asked, the mayor said Pacheco is still exploring the possibility of building a hotel on the Hess & Clark site with CBRE, a global real estate firm.
