Trenton receives a $4M grant to redevelop and reopen old downtown hotel

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For the past seven years there has not been a single hotel in Trenton, the Garden State’s capital city, but that will soon be changing.

On Tuesday, Mayor Reed Gusciora announced that the city plans to redevelop the former Trenton Marriott on Lafayette Street into a mixed-use development as he stood in front of the former hotel site.

Trenton received a $4 million local property acquisition grant from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

“This significant funding will allow us to purchase the old Marriott Hotel downtown, a property that has remained vacant since 2017,” Gusciora said.

Once the sale is complete, city officials will make a call for proposals, find a prospective developer and then sell them the property for a nominal fee.

“We’re essentially giving away the hotel to a developer who will come in and be a Bonafide developer that will turn this back into an open hotel,” he said.

“The key here is by removing the cost of acquiring the building, we are enabling a developer to focus their investment on renovating and reopening the hotel.”

Why is it important?

Gusciora said the new hotel will play a crucial role in the ongoing downtown  revitalization efforts. He expects the mixed-use development to create hundreds of jobs, increase tax revenues and draw foot traffic to the stores and restaurants in the area.

Ronald Pott, a board member of the Trenton Downtown Association, agreed.

“The hotel is another set of lights for the downtown, it’s another place that makes the downtown alive, it makes the downtown safe,” he said.

City officials support the plan

Trenton Council President Crystal Feliciano said she is excited about the project.

“We are looking for this to be something significant and sustainable,” she said. “It’s about offering job opportunities for our people here, offering entertainment, offering us a wonderful attraction that will be able to be utilized.”

Councilwoman Teska Frisby believes the plan is filled with promise.

“And knowing that we’ll have family members that get to come to town and stay here in our city, as opposed to going to neighboring cities and putting their revenue there, makes a huge difference for us,” she said. “We have so much to offer and we are rich in our history, and everybody else is going to get to enjoy it with this new facility.”

It won’t just be a hotel

Gusciora said apart from building a 100-room hotel complete with restaurants, bar and banquet facilities, and commercial retail space, some developers are also considering renovating the top floor of the current seven-story building into apartments.

He said the city will absorb unpaid taxes and water bills and “make sure any lingering liabilities are cleared up before moving forward.” He estimated the new hotel could open sometime in early 2026.