When downtown Portsmouth's new Residence Inn and Portsmouth Harbor Events & Conference Center opened in May 2010, they became the first Residence Inn hotel in the countryand the first conference center in the stateto be certified by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
No small feat for a hotel that features five floors, 128 rooms, and a 4500-square-foot adjacent conference and event space.
While it's only been open a short time, the new Residence Inn - located on Deer Street - is already making plenty of green waves. When they tore down the existing building to make room for the new hotel and conference center, 80 percent of the waste materials from the previous building ended up being reused in the new hotel, in the process saving 81 tons of debris from going to a landfill.
The newly minted LEED hotel uses 31 percent less energy than others of its size, and 40 percent of all the construction materials came from within 500 miles, making it a hotel that is as locally-oriented as it is green. And their emphasis on reusing as much as possible means the emissions for the project were far lower than they would have been for the average hotel.
Inside the extended-stay hotel are showcased even more green features, including: an emphasis on natural lighting; enhanced air quality; a reflective roof that helps minimize the "heat island" effect; non-CFC refrigerants; pre and post consumer recycled glass, steel, and drywall throughout the building; as well as eco friendly cleaning products for both the hotel and conference center kitchen.
Even the hotel staff sport uniforms made mostly out of recycled fabrics.
In an effort to further bolster their green features, over the summer the hotel became the second hotel to join the Seacoast-based Green Alliance, an organization which helps certify and promote sustainability-minded businesses throughout the region.
But what's perhaps most impressive about the mammoth hotel is how seamlessly it fits within Portsmouth's long-standing brick motif. Indeed, to the untrained eye the five-story behemoth might seem as if it's been there for a century.
"This particular Residence Inn is very unique," said Mark Stebbins, one of the hotel's principle owners and developers. "We really did our best to make sure the look and feel of the hotel meshed with that of downtown Portsmouth."
Indeed, the hotel's construction actually had to be approved by the Downtown Portsmouth Historic Commission.
Despite the outward risks of placing a large hotel in a small downtown already ripe with them, Residence Inn's first six months were wildly successful: Stebbins claims that the hotel was 90 percent occupied, and only hit its first real lull over the holidays.
"After about the third week of being open, it was full almost every night," said Stebbins. "We sold out last night, we're sold out tonight, and we've been full the last four or five days. So the reaction has been incredibly positive."
Stebbins chalks up the hotel's immediate success to a combination of brand recognition, seamless architecture and - last but not least - their growing list of green initiatives.
"We're actually getting clients whose companies are requesting that they stay in LEED-certified hotels," he said.
For his part, Stebbins hopes the new hotel - which includes the Portsmouth Harbor Events & Conference Center - will serve as a cornerstone for Marriott's future in New England, both in terms of environmentally friendly practices as well as architectural authenticity.
"We want this hotel to be a leader, absolutely," says Stebbins. "So far I think it definitely has been."
For more information about the Portsmouth Residence Inn visit www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/psmdt.
To learn more about the Green Alliance, visit www.greenalliance.biz.
Current Issue - May 2024