Somehow, it’s been well over a year since we last checked in on the northeast corner of Broad & Locust. And as you can imagine, things are looking quite different there since our last visit. Back then, we told you that Pearl Properties had purchased a two low rise structures at the corner and a midrise parking garage, and was partnering with Choice Hotels to open a 223-room Cambria Hotel at the site. We expected that all of these buildings would be demoed as part of the project:

Checking in on the property today, we see that the parking garage has been demoed and the 15-story hotel has made great progress. For some reason, the buildings at the corner have stuck around; we would have expected that Pearl would have torn those down as well, to add to the new building’s footprint. Instead, a new restaurant will eventually open here, we’d suspect.

When all is said and done, the building will look something like this:

The Cambria will join a number of other hotels on South Broad Street, including the Doubletree, the Hyatt at the Bellevue, and the Ritz Carlton. Certainly, it’s a nice upgrade to have a hotel at this location rather than an unattractive parking garage, even if we’re not totally thrilled by the aesthetic of the new building. As the newest kid on the block, this hotel will surely see a lot of action in the near term, and we wonder where it will fit into the hotel pecking order of the city once the novelty wears off. Especially with other hotels in the pipeline nearby, like the Fairfield Inn coming at 13th & Spruce and the Aloft Hotel coming to Broad & Arch, the hospitality fabric is changing rapidly in this town. We’re optimistic that the Cambria will be a solid addition to the group.