A Berkshire lodging operator is proposing a 100-room hotel highlighted by a large event center for Lenox.The Mahida family, which operates a handful of hotels in the Berkshires, wants to build an all-suite hotel connected to a 14,000-square foot event center on Pittsfield Rd. in Lenox. The Mahida group’s director of administration Dave Carpenter says the event space, complete with a kitchen, is the centerpiece of the roughly $23 million Lenox Manor Hotel and Event Center.
“The event center is going to contain a very large meeting room, 6,800 square feet, clear-span, that is, no columns, with state-of-the-art audio and visual equipment,” said Carpenter.
The three-floor hotel would replace the current Magnuson Hotel, which would be demolished. Jonathan Butler COO of 1Berkshire, the county’s economic development agency, says the region does have limitations when it comes to large spaces for corporate meetings and social gatherings.
“We’ve had a 25 percent in visitor spending in the Berkshires since 2009,” Butler said. “That means we’re bringing in more visitors, they’re spending more money and there’s more visitor economy activity in the Berkshire than there was 10 years ago. Our capacity needs to increase to meet that demand. I think we’ve become more proactively branded in the New York, Boston and other regions as a unique destination. It’s the feel of the Berkshires. It’s a natural place to come to be inspired and relaxed in that tranquil setting that’s very conducive to conferences. It’s a great place to send your employees when you want them to be motivated and think and work around solving challenges and opening their minds to new approaches to their workplace.”
Butler says the extended-stay suites can be utilized by companies with local facilities that may bring in employees from out the area for work stints, like General Dynamics. Carpenter says the Mahida group has talked to Cranwell Spa & Golf Resort, also in Lenox, about working together to advance the notion of the area as a center for destination events.
“The event center will be hopefully permitted for 500 guests and the hotel is only 100 suites so that’s a fairly large spillover whenever we have a large event that will migrate and benefit other local lodging operators,” said Carpenter.
Carpenter says the event center and hotel would employ about 25 full-time equivalent staff. The Mahida group also has an option on 20 acres around the Magnuson Hotel, which Carpenter says will remain as woodlands for now with a range of possible future uses.
“I think it will be something that complements the phase one,” Carpenter said. “So you have an event center and an all-suite hotel so you could look for some other kind of hotel and hospitality-related activities. The field is wide open. Our focus is the Magnuson project and making sure that gets off to a great start.”
The Mahida group has applied to the Lenox Zoning Board of Appeals for permits to complete the project. Just down the road, a 92-room Courtyard by Marriott is being built by the Toole Lodging Group. Also about 20 miles north in Adams, a lodge and conference center is being planned as part of a $40 million project at the base of Mt. Greylock.
