Westport’s Inn at National Hall, transformed 12 years ago from a rundown landmark 19th century building into a small luxury hotel, has applied to the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission for permission to convert its second and third floors from hotel use to luxury condos.
Inn at National Hall: application filed to convert from hotel to apartments. File photo
A legal notice said the application was filed for a special permit and site plan “for a change of use from hotel to apartments on the second and third floors of National Hall, and garage improvements.”
The commission opened the application at its meeting Thursday night but continued it until Feb. 17 with no testimony taken. The applicant requested the extension because it reduced from 10 to nine the number of luxury condos envisioned in the original plan and made other changes, according to Mary Young of the P&Z office.
Built in 1873 and once part of the thriving 19th century Westport waterfront, the Inn at National Hall was restored and transformed into a 15-room luxury hotel in 1993 by developer Arthur Tauck at a cost of about $2.5 million. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
The hotel’s ground floor has housed several luxury restaurants since its opening but now is occupied by a home loan center of Washington Mutual. According to the hotel’s Web site, rooms and suites range from $295 to $650 a night.
When it opened in 1873, the building housed a bank, newspaper and ballroom. It became the site for town meetings, concerts and graduation exercises. Its last tenant, a furniture store, moved out in 1987. That year Tauck bought the property for $1.57 million at a bankruptcy auction.
Initially, Tauck wanted to put up a little bed-and-breakfast inn, but when he realized the restoration was going to be expensive, he knew he needed higher room rates and decided to turn it into an elegant hotel.
Tauck hired Westport architect Roger Ferris to stabilize and redesign the structure and to restore the brick facade with cast-iron trim to its original grandeur.
The application to convert the rooms from hotel use to apartments was filed by Dave Beem in care of Roger Ferris and Partners for property owned by National Hall Associates, LLC, in care of Norwalk-based Greenfield Partners. Greenfield bought the building from Tauck in 1998 for $4 million.
In a letter to the P&Z office dated Jan. 18, Beem said the revised plan for the building calls for four two-bedroom units and five one-bedroom units. It also provides for a change in the configuration of the parking lot near the building and a parking garage across the street which would add enclosed parking units with storage space.
The Inn at National Hall received national attention on March 10, 1998, when a luncheon honoring President Bill Clinton was held there under the auspices of the Democratic Business Council. The hosts were Westporters Bob and Yvette Rose.
At the luncheon, Clinton recalled his last visit to Westport in 1991. “My name recognition was less than 50 percent among the people in the room to meet me that night,” he said, evoking much laughter from guests.
