Hotel Commonwealth slated for January 2003 opening

It’s 1:30 in the morning. You’re a little drunk. And you feel like some moderately priced … French cuisine?

Look no further than the Hotel Commonwealth.

Spanning the 300 feet on the south end of Commonwealth Avenue in Kenmore Square, the six-story, 150-room, four-star luxury hotel will also feature a 20-hour café, an upscale seafood restaurant and approximately eight retailers. The hotel, plus a limited amount of the retail space, will begin operation in late January, according to the hotel’s principal developer, Terrence Guiney of Great Bays Holdings.

Reservations, which can currently be made online, range from approximately $200 to $250 per room per night.

‘We’re already booking for February on the website, for both meeting space and guest rooms,’ Guiney said.

According to Guiney, the possibility of seasonal room discounts, such as during move-in and move-out weeks, for Boston University students and their families is also being discussed.

‘BU has always generated a significant amount of business for hotel rooms around the city,’ Guiney said. ‘We hope the university, in all aspects, will take advantage. They’re going to be a significant part of our business base.’

Designed in the French Empire style, similar to the Kenmore Abbey apartments right next door, the hotel is meant to reflect Boston’s legacy of grand hotels built between 1930 and 1960, Guiney said.

‘You originally had ‘hotel row,’ which was a stretch of buildings between Boston Common and Kenmore Square, before the modern hotels began to spring up,’ Guiney said. ‘We want to be consistent with that historic precedent.’

And to comply with the modern precedent of the affluent traveler, each room 70 of them containing an adjoining parlor suite includes custom furnishings, vaulted ceilings and in-room, high-speed Internet access. Other complimentary room perks include a DVD player, telephone with programmable voicemail, fully stocked mini-bars, down pillows, quilts and an electronic safe.

Timothy Kirwan, a 27-year veteran of the hotel industry and former manager of the Westin-Providence and the Bostonian Hotel, will be the hotel’s managing director, Guiney said.

Already slated to open shop in the building are used and rare book dealer Commonwealth Books and Commonwealth Bank, Guiney said. Giacomo ‘ Rondi Salon, which is currently located across the street, will be moving in shortly. Guiney also said negotiations for a florist, fast food restaurant and wine store are being made.

Meanwhile, Boston chefs Michael Schlow and Christopher Myers (formerly of Radius, Via Matta) are putting the finishing touches on their upscale seafood restaurant, Great Bay.

And to satisfy the BU students’ cravings for late-night food past midnight, Guiney said the development of an authentic French sidewalk bistro that will operate 20 hours a day (kitchen closing around 2 a.m.) is nearing the final stages on the drawing board.

While not quite the IHOP, Guiney said the availability of inexpensive early-morning eats in the Kenmore area would prove to be a popular venture.

‘It’s going to be a different menu with different prices,’ Guiney said. ‘And more student-friendly.’

But will students and locals, prior patrons of Kenmore Square’s vintage thrift shops, tattoo parlors and grunge-rock bars, want to shop at Hotel Commonwealth’s upscale boutiques by day and nosh on croque monsieurs and mixed greens post-Landsdowne Street?

Perhaps.

And even if a few pierced noses are turned up at the neighborhood’s new offerings, Guiney said the hotel’s elegant, old world charm and, more notably, its proximity to a myriad of colleges, hospitals and even Fenway Park will help attract numerous potential customers.

‘The Kenmore area is not only the gateway to Boston University, but also the western side of Boston,’ Guiney said. ‘This project is about urban revitalization, and area universities and hospitals will benefit from it.’

Brandon Fogarty, a College of Arts and Sciences freshman, said the hotel’s location to campus has attracted the interest of his parents, who he said, ‘frequently like to visit.’

‘My mom’s already tried to book rooms on the website for the next time they come up,’ Fogarty said. ‘And it seems like a nicer hotel than some of the other ones in the area.’

Jessica Shumaker, a spokesperson for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the board to which any Boston developer must submit a proposal before building, said the increase of both retail and guest room business in Boston is a positive development.

‘It’s going to enhance the area; with the stores coming into the ground floors and the additional hotel rooms in the city,’ Shumaker said. ‘Boston needs more hotel rooms.’

While BU previously owned several buildings that were demolished to make room for construction, the university remains a limited partner in the hotel’s operations and business. In a September 2002 interview, Joseph Mercurio, executive vice president at BU, said the university maintains an active interest in the efforts to improve Kenmore Square.

‘Many urban universities often take an opposite stance, not wanting to renovate and redevelop older neighborhoods surrounding their campuses,’ Mercurio said. ‘We are always concerned with the quality of life around campus and Kenmore Square, not allowing these areas to be blighted and the hotel is a big part of this improvement.’

And the Hotel Commonwealth is merely the beginning.

‘We’ve seen Kenmore Square gradually turn around over the past few years,’ Guiney said, noting Great Bays Holdings’ future plans to add new trees and walkways, create a more pedestrian-friendly environment by narrowing roads and expanding brick-paved sidewalks and completely renovate the adjacent Kenmore MBTA bus station.

It doesn’t hurt that the hotel is located at the intersection of Commonwealth Avenue and Beacon Street roads that are familiar to travelers around the world.

‘These are two streets that are definitional,’ Guiney said. ‘They’re Boston.’