Birds not welcome at new $110M hotel
BY TOM SCANLON, Progress Managing Editor
Caesar’s Republic Scottsdale, an 11-story boutique hotel, hopes its $600-3,000 per night rooms will attract high-flying tourists.
But not high-flying birds.
In a pun-filled – if not fun-filled – De-sign Review Board meeting, the $110 million hotel’s owner and his attorney asked for a fairly significant change, even though “construction of the hotel was started in early 2022 and is now mostly complete.”
An out-of-state architect and “miscommunication” leading to a delayed city response combined for the request being addressed this late in the game, the Caesar’s representatives said.
Owner Rick Huffman and his attorney, John Berry, asked the board to approve a significant change – largely because a similarly-designed hotel in Oklahoma has an issue with what might be called uninvited guests.
“No pun intended, but some of you might think this issue is for the birds,” Berry cracked. “But this is a serious issue.”
He asked the board to approve 3-inch ledges because the previously-approved 20-inch ledges create a booming locale “for bird congregation and the accumulation of bird excrement.”
Michal Ann Joyner, a board member, rolled her eyes over the double-barreled explanation and summarized the request as “The Comedy of Errors Bird Poop Case.”
Calling this an “advertisement for using local architects,” Joyner said she was baffled that it took so long for the under-construction project to wait until three floors were constructed to figure out something was wrong.
“I think this is a no-win situation,” she said – though she and her fellow board members grudgingly approved the request.
Caesar’s Republic plans to open its 233-room hotel with a restaurant and bar next to Fashion Square in February.
The project is billed as “the first non-gaming hotel from Caesars Entertainment in the United States.”
Chef, author and TV personality Giada De Laurentiis will be opening a Luna by Giada restaurant on the first floor of the hotel.
The building’s design/constructionplan was originally approved by the Development Review Board on Nov. 7, 2019.
Huffman blamed the pandemic for a delay in starting construction – and birds for changing the plan.
“Modification to the slab overhangwas in no way an attempt to circumvent the DRB process or deceive the city,” Berry stressed.
He repeatedly noted the project as asking for permission to make the changes, rather than doing the work “and asking for forgiveness.”
Huffman noted it wasn’t just fear of birds – a similar hotel in Oklahoma with 20-inch slabs is plagued with poor water draining and cracking.
But his attorney painted a vivid picture of “a visual nuisance for room guests viewing bird excrement and debris.”
Berry insisted this was not a smokescreen to try to save money: “With a savings of only $158,000 of the overall approximately $111,000,000 project cost, this was not a value-engineering effort.”
After discussing the matter for an hour, and pondering if this might be a “lessons learned” example on how to avoid future developer-city miscom-munications, the board unanimously approved the request for shorter ledges.
Sorry, pigeons, doves and quail.