From Nancy Gaines, The GDT.
“Preliminary plans for the Beauport Gloucester hotel at the former Birdseye site on Pavilion Beach call for a four-story structure, containing 102 mid-priced rooms, a restaurant, meeting center and parking under the building.
With the developers, Beauport Gloucester LLC, already having given “perpetual use” of the beach to the community, they now promise to create a public walkway from Commercial Street to the beach.
Another special local feature, said the hotel project’s managing director, Sheree DeLorenzo, will be retaining or rebuilding the Birdseye white tower, “because it’s a local landmark,” she said.
The plans will be brought before City Council Monday in the first in a series of public meetings by the city Planning Board and the council’s Planning and Development Subcommittee.
The project, financed by Jim Davis — the owner and founder of New Balance shoes, who has a home in Bay View — could cost $75 million, industry experts say.
The plan entails amending — but not dropping — the marine industrial zoning of Fort Square to accommodate a hotel that would be subject to stiff special permitting. The proposed rezoning — with a hotel overlay district — is the subject of Monday’s hearing, which is set for 7 p.m. in City Hall’s Kyrouz Auditorium.
“We listened to the community,” said DeLorenzo, who manages Cruiseport and the Seaport Grille and who will make a presentation to the council Monday.
“We heard that people wanted friends, family, visitors or business colleagues to be able to stay in the city, in a type of accommodation they were accustomed to,” she said. “We will make Birdseye a beautiful property.”
DeLorenzo said the project may well bring up to 100 new jobs to the city, with positions in all ranges of income. A trickle-down effect, she said, would also expand business for providers of local goods like fish, cakes, candies, beer and spirits, florists.”
For much more on this story, look to tomorrow’s print and online editions of the Gloucester Daily Times and gloucestertimes.com.
To have text updates regarding this story and other local Breaking News coverage, just sign up for the Times’ free text-alert service on the gloucestertimes.com homepage. For more up-to-date coverage, follow the Times news and sports teams on Twitter at twitter.com@gdtnews or gdtsports.
Nancy Gaines is a regular Times correspondent and an editor of Boston and national publications.
Good Morning Gloucester 
Its possible there is a more perfect plan for the hotel and for Gloucester in general , but the movement is forward for a change and the usual spinning of the wheels is getting very old . I do not believe there are good guys vs villains in this conflict tho so lets keep it civil .
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Somebody please tell me what was the function of the tower.
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I plan to be at the meeting to hear more, but so far it sounds like the developers are trying to do, as much as is possible, to make the community happy, improve the lot of many and give Gloucester the increased ability to draw more visitors. I’m happy to hear they will keep the tower, which is a landmark. Thanks for sharing this great info Paul.
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yay!!!
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