Hilton hotel to open across from Barnstable Municipal Airport-Boardman/Polando Field (KHYA), Hyannis, Massachusetts.

Photo Credit:  EDWARD F. MARONEY

UNDER WRAPS FOR NOW – The DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Cape Cod is scheduled to open on Route 28 in Hyannis this spring. It will replace the former Radisson Hotel at the site across from Barnstable Municipal Airport.

Feb 03 2012

Written by Edward F. Maroney

Makeover of former Radisson under way

A Hilton hotel is coming to Route 28 in Hyannis. It won’t be a Hilton Garden Inn, but a DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Cape Cod is due to open this spring.

Developer Stuart Bornstein, who tried to build a five-story Garden Inn across from Barnstable Municipal Airport but stepped back when town council opposition to a regulatory agreement appeared likely, has tapped another of his resources, the nearby building that formerly housed the Radisson Inn, to bring Hilton to Hyannis.

“We’re literally changing every bathroom, all new furniture, new lobbies, new energy systems,” Bornstein said this week. “We’ll spend over $7 million on this renovation. It’ll be ready in April, with God’s help.” The building’s health club, which remains open, is being renovated and getting new equipment as well.

The reason for the makeover, Bornstein said, is the “demand for an upscale hotel. We were turning away business, busing people to other properties off-Cape because there aren’t enough upscale rooms down here.”

Hilton’s website describes the new hotel as “conveniently located in the heart of beautiful Cape Cod,” offering “easy access to numerous attractions including the shops and restaurants of Main Street Hyannis and the Cape Cod Mall, the historic Hyannis waterfront district with island ferries to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket as well as pristine Cape Cod beaches.”

Some town leaders had hoped an upscale hotel would locate closer to the harbor, but others have argued for the ease of access to the airport and Route 6 provided by the Route 28 site.

Bornstein said the Hilton brand is a big plus.

“I just know that we’ve picked up additional bookings of hundreds of thousands of dollars because it is a Hilton,” he said. “DoubleTree is the upper end of their hotels, not the top top.”

Regarding those bookings, Bornstein is bullish.

“The hotel business this winter is very strong,” he said. “The Holiday Inn [another of his properties, on Route 132] is quite ahead. I think the economy is getting better.”

Asked why people come to Cape Cod in the winter, Bornstein said, “We’re a cheap getaway. We’re an hour and a half out of Boston or Rhode Island. You can come down here and have a good time for what it costs you to park your car and have dinner in Boston, so why not?”

As for his commercial real estate, “We have been very busy leasing out this winter,” Bornstein said. “Our vacant space has disappeared by over 40 percent.” He said he’s planning 250,000 square feet of new commercial space on and off the Cape for potential tenants who want long-term leases.

Bornstein won’t say who’s interested in the new commercial building he built on the site once planned for the Hilton Garden Inn across from the airport. “We have tenants who want to rent pieces of the building,” he said, “more than enough to fill it. The problem is finding a marriage between the tenants.” There may be news by spring.

As for the residential market, Bornstein said, “There’s been a lot of interest in the last 30 days” regarding condos and housing projects. “It had been dead for a long time, but people who were here two years ago are coming back. Out of 1,800 people we kept track of, almost nobody has bought anything. Some are starting to put their head out.”

Bornstein hopes to break ground on his own house, planned for Freezer Point in Barnstable Village, by the end of March.

“We see some big differences in the economy,” he said. “There’s still a long row to hoe, but we’ve been busy. We think it’ll be a strong summer season for everybody based on what we can see on pre-bookings.”

Source:  http://www.barnstablepatriot.com