Joel Burgess

jburgess@citizen-times.com

ASHEVILLE — A nine-story hotel planned for the city's heart has cleared its last major review by city planners.

The AC Hotel planned for the northeast corner of Broadway and College streets was approved with conditions by the city technical review committee Monday.

That means the hotel, which would go up just a block from the Vance Monument — arguably the bulls eye of Asheville — doesn't need approval from any more city planning committees to proceed. Developers still must get demolition and building permits.

The site is occupied by the BB&T Building parking garage.

The developer is MHG Tower LLC, a partnership between BB&T Building owner Glenn Wilcox and McKibbon Hotel group of Gainsville, Georgia, which built Aloft Hotel on Biltmore Avenue. This summer, MHG Tower members said they hoped to break ground by March and finish the hotel by September 2016.

Any changes to the time line weren't immediately known. But city process manager and member of the technical review committee Chris Collins said the developers were eager to start.

"They are trying to move forward," Colins said.

The project will be an AC Hotel by Marriott, a brand Marriott International describes as "upper moderate tier." It will include a restaurant and bar, meeting space and other amenities.

Latest plans call for the building to be 108 feet high with 132 rooms and 88,280 square feet. A parking garage on levels one through four will have 338 spaces.

The garage on the site now is almost 50 years old, and the new one will have some spaces for the public.

The AC Hotel is the first part of a larger project that includes revamping the BB&T Building, a 17-story office building and the tallest structure in the city.

After completion of the first hotel, work will start to convert the main building into an upscale, boutique hotel. Six floors with vacation rentals and condominiums for sale would be located above the hotel in the BB&T. Work will include a redesign of the building's exterior.

There's a historic component to the AC Hotel in that it will go on the site of the landmark Langren Hotel. The Langren was built in 1912 on what was then the corner of North Main and College streets, according to the Ramsey Library archives at UNC Asheville.

AC Hotel, the breakdown