Elevage Development Group is proposing a 10- or 12-story hotel at the BP gas station site at 3012 Excelsior Blvd.

Residents of the West Calhoun neighborhood saw a first glimpse of the project on Tuesday, seeing options for a taller, slimmer building or a shorter, lengthier building.

Elevage President Corey Burstad said the hotel would likely include 100-125 rooms and a 100-seat restaurant. Parking stalls would number 115 above and below ground, with one below-grade parking level. Two floors of the hotel might be set aside for residences, he said.

Portland-based Provenance Hotels would manage the hotel. Elevage is also collaborating with Provenance on a boutique hotel project in Stillwater.

“We want it to be an iconic building,” Burstad said, adding that a design scheme hasn’t been finalized.

The site is zoned as a Community Activity Center District (C3A), and the hotel proposal would not require rezoning, according to the architect. However, the plans would require a conditional use permit to build above two-and-a-half stories inside the Shoreland Overlay District.

Some meeting attendees raised concerns that the hotel would block views for residences north of West Lake Street. Staff from ESG Architects suggested in response that the taller design option would reduce the impact on surrounding views.

“The biggest concern I have is ugliness and more density and people not being able to function in the neighborhood that they knew and loved. And it’s all of a sudden a completely different city than what we want,” said resident Victoria Hoshal. “Our parks and lakes are what makes Minneapolis unique, and we are systematically steamrolling them and ruining them and all of our uniqueness is going to be gone if we keep on at this pace.”

The developer plans to commission a traffic study to compare trips generated by the current gas station with a potential hotel.

The discussion comes at a time when West Calhoun is also seeing a proposal to add four new buildings to Calhoun Towers at 3430 List Pl. Bader Development is proposing 739 additional units in two 22-story buildings and two six-story buildings. In response, the West Calhoun Neighborhood Council has raised concerns that include traffic and parking. For more information on the Calhoun Towers project, visit westcalhoun.org/neighborhood-news.