Planning Commission will again review hotel plan on Visitation Academy property

Ryan Marshall, The Frederick News-Post, Md.
·2 min read

May 17—A boutique hotel in downtown Frederick is still on pace to open next summer, despite a small change in plans requiring a return to the city's Planning Commission.

The Marriott hotel on the site of the former Visitation Academy on East Second Street is scheduled to open in July 2023, with 57 standard hotel rooms and 10 extended-stay rooms.

But the project's final site plan will have to head back to the Planning Commission in the coming months for a workshop and a hearing to approve changes to a drop-off and loading zone on the property.

While it's not a significant change, the site plan had been revised once before and has to go back to the Planning Commission after a review by members of the Planning Department staff, Gabrielle Collard, manager of current planning for the city, said at a meeting to discuss planning projects.

A plan can only change so much from what was presented to the public before it must be reviewed again, Collard said.

The project will be affiliated with Marriott, and the property will be known as Visitation Hotel Frederick, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel.

Visitation will complement a larger hotel and conference center planned for along Carroll Creek and also run by Marriott.

The Visitation Academy opened in 1846 and closed in June 2016, citing low enrollment. It operated as an all-girls Catholic school for pre-kindergarten through middle school students.

The site was used as a hospital during the Civil War, and nuns lived on the property until 2005. About 110 of them are buried in a cemetery in the rear courtyard, which will be preserved as part of the project.

Along with the hotel, the property will also contain 11 condominiums.

One building of condominiums is expected to be finished in early 2023, Luke Zeller of Harris, Smariga & Associates said Monday.

A second building has to go back before the Historic Planning Commission, and doesn't have a timeline for being finished, he said.

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