By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
For nearly five years, Bowling Green officials tried to get Victory Inn to clean up its act. The hotel, at 1630 E. Wooster St., was frequently the source of complaints about bedbugs, plumbing and electrical problems, the lack of smoke alarms and cleanliness violations.
After years of wrangling with the owner, Jamal Garmo, of Michigan, the hotel was demolished last October.
Wednesday evening, Garmo was back in Bowling Green to talk about his plans to build a new hotel on the old property.
But he needed approval from the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals, since the hotel he is proposing exceeds the city’s height and story limits.
By a vote of 3 to 2, the board rejected Garmo’s request. Voting against were Robert Waddle, Jonathan Jakubowksi and Chris Ostrowski. Voting in favor were Hobart Johnson and Julie Burton.
After the meeting, Waddle said the rejection had nothing to do with Garmo’s hotel history in Bowling Green. “All we were considering was the height and number of floors,” he said.
City Prosecutor Matt Reger said the zoning ruling was based on the proposal not meeting city requirements, not with Garmo’s past problems. Reger agreed the Victory Inn had been a thorn in the city’s side for several years. “It was a situation we had to deal with, and in the end we did get cooperation from the owner.”
Garmo’s request was for a variance to allow construction of a 107-room hotel on the eastern portion of the seven acres that previously housed Victory Inn. The proposed hotel was 65 feet tall, five feet taller than allowed, and five stories high, one story higher than allowed in B-2 general commercial zoning. The proposed hotel would have been a relatively new Hilton product called Home 2, which offers extended stays.
After having his variance request turned down, Garmo said he needed to think about his next move. He returned to the meeting room after a few minutes to express his displeasure with the zoning board of appeals.
“Five stories is a signature from the highway,” Garmo said, adding he originally wanted the hotel to be six stories.
“I’m very disappointed, very disappointed,” he said, telling the board the hotel would have been a $10 million investment in the city. “This would be a Taj Mahal in the city – the best thing ever going to happen to your city.”
Garmo was assured by the board that the city is not opposed to a new hotel, but it must meet requirements.
“I don’t think there’s anyone who has a problem with a hotel coming to Bowling Green,” Johnson said. “We need to have more hotels.”
There are multiple times every year when the hotels in the city are packed, some members of the board agreed.
On behalf of Garmo, Andy Andre, of Bud Design & Engineering Services Inc. in Grand Blanc, Michigan, explained to the board that Hilton was insistent on the signature “beacon” look of the Home 2 hotels, and that feature pushed the height beyond the city’s limit.
“The brands do not want anything less than four stories,” Andre said. And removing the “beacon” part of the structure was out of the question, he said, comparing it to asking McDonald’s to limit its sites to one arch.
By building upward, the 107-room hotel would have a much smaller footprint than the two-story Victory Inn which had 103 rooms, Andre said. However, after the board’s rejection, Andre said he may ask Hilton to be flexible and allow a four-story hotel.
Though no specific plans were presented, Andre said the smaller footprint of the taller hotel would have allowed for other businesses on the seven-acre site. He said the remainder of the property could possibly be “mixed use” with some retail, office and residential.
