Two hotels are added to the mix of projects at CityPlace in downtown Burlington

Two new downtown hotels are in the picture now for the CityPlace development filling the former pit between Bank and Cherry streets in Burlington, where a downtown mall past its prime once stood.

Mayor Miro Weinberger and the three local businessmen behind CityPlace held a press conference at the site Thursday afternoon to update the public on the progress being made on the project, which included an announcement of the addition of two new hotels from a new minority equity partner, Giri Group.

Giri Group, described as a "well-capitalized developer headquartered in Massachusetts," will operate the two hotels at the CityPlace site. The hotels were not identified, but the Giri website shows the company has been managing and operating hotels in New England for more than 15 years, working with brands including Marriott, Hilton and Best Western.

CityPlace South Building tops out at 10 stories, tallest in Vermont

After 15 months of construction, CityPlace's South Building has topped out at 10 stories, according to a news release, and will be the tallest building in Vermont when completed in one year. The CityPlace partners − Scott Ireland of S.D. Ireland Construction in Williston; Dave Farrington of Farrington Construction in Shelburne; and Al Senecal of Omega Vermont in South Burlington − have also finalized their building plan for the entire site.

Last week, CityPlace received a permit amendment from the Department of Permitting and Inspection that allows for a minimum of 350 residential units, including 70 permanently affordable units, a maximum of 350 hotel rooms in two separate hotels, 40,000 square feet of retail and 172,000 square feet of parking, according to a news release.

The CityPlace partners said in November 2022 there would be a total of 427 apartments, split among efficiency, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom designs. At that time, Champlain Housing Trust was planning to build and manage about 85 affordable housing units as part of the project. Last December, however, the partners announced they would build the 70 permanently affordable apartments required for the project themselves, rather than partnering with nonprofits Champlain Housing Trust (CHT) and Evernorth to build stand-alone, publicly financed affordable housing on the western side of the site, as originally planned.

"Once the site of a failing suburban mall, the CityPlace project is now a bustling construction site spanning an entire city block," Farrington said in a statement on Thursday.

He said much of the foundations for both the North and South towers have been completed, along with the steel frame and concrete slab floors for the South Tower. Work is now progressing on the exterior wall construction and sheathing on the South Tower, which will be finished by the end of March, according to Farrington.

More: CityPlace decides to build its own affordable housing rather than relying on nonprofit

At the next City Council meeting on Monday, Feb. 12, Weinberger will ask for approval for amendments to the existing development agreement between the city of Burlington and the CityPlace Partners to enable the new building program announced Thursday, according to a news release.

Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosi@gannett.com. Follow him on X @DanDambrosioVT.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: CityPlace Burlington developers add two hotels to project