A new Marriott hotel is being planned for Northeast Philadelphia close to an underutilized shopping center that was once part of the Franklin Mills complex, writes Jake Blumgart for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Huntingdon Valley-based Sant Properties, which owns the shopping center, is the developer of the 84,703-square-foot, 100-room hotel.

“There hasn’t been much interest in retail [in recent years], especially larger box retail,” said Ron Patterson, a zoning attorney with Klehr Harrison who is representing Sant Properties. “So they started to try and reappropriate the uses” in the shopping center.

To diversify its offerings, Sant Properties has opened a standalone CVS drug store as well as a car wash.

The Marriott hotel project requires a zoning variance because the land is zoned strictly for auto-oriented commercial development.

The project was originally conceived early last year but has been on hold since late 2022. There is currently no timeline for construction, but considering that no demolition or property transfer is required, a standard completion within 18 to 24 months is possible.

On August 1, the project will be presented to the city’s advisory Civic Design Review (CDR) committee due to its scale.

Read more about the planned hotel in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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