Cabana-inspired hotel slated for Nubble

CAPE NEDDICK — The owners of the Viewpoint Hotel, near Nubble Lighthouse, are seeking permission for a major expansion that would add 16 hotel rooms, a restaurant and more to the property.

Drawing inspiration from the cabana-style summer vacation rentals that once stood on the site, an architect sketched plans for a cluster of rooms that would face the lighthouse vista from under slanted roofs.

The design calls for a restaurant and bar with seating for 75 to 100 people, a pool and sundeck, and a cabana designated for wellness activities, such as yoga classes, according to a Jan. 23 presentation made to the Planning Board.

Chris Reynolds, managing member of Wow Design Group, based in New York City, told board members his firm has been working on the project for about eight months. The goal has been to come up with a design that will fit well in the residential neighborhood, emphasize environmentally sustainable elements and result in a special hotel experience, Reynolds said.

The property would include a variety of landscaping features to enmesh the hotel in its surroundings, including vine-covered trellises along each of the cabana-inspired units and a green roof feature above the restaurant, Reynolds said. The development, which would be built on land that once included the Brown Ice Cream stand, would keep Brown’s rock on the site.

“There’s a lot of history around that rock,” Reynolds said. “I grew up actually in the summers eating ice creams on that rock. It’s a very special place.”

“We’re going to preserve that as a feature in the landscape for both people who are coming to the restaurant and also people staying at the hotel,” he added.

The building’s sloped roofs, with an overhang of 4 to 5 feet, would help to reduce energy consumption, Reynolds said. When the sun is closer to the horizon during the winter months, direct sunlight would help to heat the rooms naturally, he said. During the warmer months, the overhang would offer more interior shade.

The rooms would be well-insulated with windows on only one wall, built with floors that retain heat, and equipped with natural ventilation systems that give guests the option to forgo use of their air conditioning units, Reynolds said.

“We want to actually have this be an educational tool for guests on how natural ventilation in the summers in Maine can be just as effective in cooling your spaces as having an A/C unit,” he said. “We will have A/C units, of course, but we’d like people to know that there are other options.”

The expansion would be built in a way that minimizes any disruption to nearby residential properties, with vegetation-filled buffer zones and a lower profile on the side of the building that faces neighboring homes, Reynolds said.

Joe Lipton, principal partner and CEO of Crane Hotel Group, which owns the Viewpoint property and others in the York area, said his team scrapped an earlier iteration of the expansion project because it was too big and cookie-cutter for the site.

“We’re trying to create an experience for the guests,” Lipton said. “It’s not necessarily just about a place to put your head because you can do that anywhere.”

Total cost for the project is still being estimated but is expected to land somewhere in the $4 million to $6 million range, Lipton said.

After securing an updated design that better matches the area, Lipton and his team approached the neighbors to solicit their feedback before making an initial presentation to the Planning Board.

Steve Dunne, who owns Dunne’s Ice Cream and Fox’s Lobster House between the site of the planned expansion and the Nubble, spoke in favor of the project during Thursday’s meeting.

“We support what they’re trying to do here. We think they’re on the right track,” Dunne said. “We do live there, too, and we want something really nice.”

“We work great together as neighbors, and we don’t see any problem at all,” he added.

Multiple Planning Board members praised the design team for a thorough presentation.

“It’s exciting,” Vice Chair Kathleen Kluger said of the project, complimenting the team for presenting their conceptual plans effectively.

Chair Alfred J. Cotton Jr. said the plans appear to be “exciting” and “innovative.”

Board member Wayne Boardman said it was “very smart” to approach neighbors before coming to Thursday’s meeting.

The only real concern raised was about potential impacts from pedestrian and vehicular traffic, which may be affected also by the town’s plans to widen Nubble Road and add sidewalks. The board voted unanimously to accept the sketch plan.

Considering the board’s supportive initial response, Lipton said his team may be able to fast-track this project to secure the board’s preliminary approval in February and final approval in March. Work on the site — including demolition of three houses across the street from the existing hotel — could begin as soon as April, he said, with the possibility of opening between June 2021 and September 2021, though the anticipated timeline is still in flux.