The Art Moderne-style building at 230 N. 13th St. is easy to miss, sitting on the edge of Chinatown and mere steps from the Vine Street Expressway. But the building has some amazing history to it, above and beyond its architecture, which landed it on the Historic Register back in 2008. The building has been home to three famous tenants in its relatively short lifetime. Originally, it was used by Warner Brothers as a private movie screening location. Starting in 1965, it was home to NFL Films. When they moved to Jersey, Big Brothers Big Sisters bought the building and used it as their national headquarters until just a few years ago.

In 2014, after BBBS moved away, we shared the news that the property was listed for sale for $2.75M and we predicted a mid-rise building would rise here, either replacing the existing building or incorporating it into the design of a new structure. Literally a month later, we heard that the building was under agreement with a hotel company and that they were planning a nine-story addition atop the existing building. As an indication that the property had been under agreement even when we wrote our first story, the proposal had already appeared before the Historical Commission and was scheduled for a return engagement.

Here we are, though, three years later, and the property looks worse than it did back when we last wrote about it. There’s no hotel here, at least not yet.

But that could soon change. A building permit was pulled a couple months ago for a hotel, but with different specs than we originally reported. The permits call for a fifteen-story building here, with a rooftop pool and underground parking. As was the case before, SPG3 is doing the architecture work, and we now know that we can expect an AC Marriott Hotel here. This hotel brand is relatively new to North America, and the marketing suggests a European bend at breakfast time, with Spanish egg tarts and Nespresso subbing for plain, boring American eggs and coffee. And their website amazingly boasts that their “bartenders are true urban spirits who will share the unique buzz of the city and all it has to offer.” So at least they’ve got that going for them.

Here’s a rendering, to show what we can expect when the project is finished:

Though the project has experienced a three year delay, we’re optimistic that it will finally start moving forward soon. And while we can’t quite figure out how we feel about the design of the addition to the existing building, we’re excited to see how the new ultimately blends in with the old. And of course, we really enjoy Spanish egg tarts and urban spirit bartenders, so we’ll probably have to staycation a night or two after the project wraps up.