Owners of a Routes 1&9 hotel that received approval to also build a free-standing restaurant more than a decade ago have lined up a franchise with plans to build an eatery.

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Representatives for Family Hospitality, LLC, which owns Home2Suites (Block 338, Lots 3.01 and 3.02, 667 E. Milton Ave.) appeared before the Redevelopment Agency during its regular monthly meeting on Wednesday night to present plans to build a restaurant and bring an Arooga’s Grille House & Sports Bar franchise to the site.

The redevelopment plan would need to be amended to permit the use as well as other variances for parking, front and rear yard setbacks, Planner Leigh Fleming said. “We prefer this version,” she said. The primary target for the restaurant will be people who already are staying at the hotel and the adjacent 74-unit Best Western on Paterson Street and parked there.

The proposed one-story, 7,344-square-foot building would have seating for about 200. Most of the 38 parking spaces on site would be in the rear and the existing hotel driveway would be used to access the restaurant. City ordinance requires one parking space for every three seats, which would require approximately 66 spaces.

The Redevelopment Agency unanimously approved a resolution recommending that City Council amend the redevelopment plan. There was some question whether zoning reflected that the restaurant would serve alcohol. The idea was that was going to be a restaurant with a bar, Commissioner Tim Nash said.

The Home2Suites gained Planning Board approval in 2009 —  Family Hospitality had come before the Redevelopment Agency the previous fall with changes to the concept plan — and received approval at the time for an 8,000-square-foot restaurant. The hotel broke ground in 2012 and opened in 2013.

An indoor pool and a restaurant are both part of the original redevelopment agreement for the four-story, 93-unit extended stay facility.

In September, City Council approved an ordinance (O-33-22) that removed a 20-year sunset clause within the Route 1 Corridor Redevelopment Plan. The plan, approved in September 2002, included hotels as a permitted use.

The 4.4-acre site once housed a single-story Deluxe Inn that was demolished to make way for a new hotel. Originally, the plan called for building a Sleep Inn, then a Candlewood Suites, before the Planning Board in 2009 approved an amendment that brought in Home2Suites.

The Harrisburg, Pa.-based franchise has three locations in New Jersey — East Brunswick, Howell, and The College of New Jersey in Ewing — and another in North Plainfield that closed after COVID. Operating hours are 11 a.m. to midnight during the week and until 2 a.m. on weekends. The restaurant typically has 70 to 75 employees, with about 15 per shift, depending on the day of the week.

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