Luxury Hotel Will Open In Square

Though the cement dust has barely settled on what will be the lobby of the new Charles Hotel, its developers raised their glasses there last week to celebrate the January opening of Harvard Square's latest addition.

The 300-room luxury hotel will adjoin an office building, a group of river view condominiums and a 30-store shopping mall which will open in March. All are located on land adjacent to the Kennedy School.

The hotel, mall, and condominium complex has raised fears among neighborhood businessmen that they will be priced out of the market. Already, local shop owners are reporting large rent increases and they fear that costs will skyrocket once the upscale stores in the Charles project commence business.

Despite plans for a three story "urban spa" and beauty salon, multilingual maid service, three restaurants and probable $150 a night room rates, developers are quick to disclaim a ritzy, Copley Place image for the complex.

Retail developer Sharon Cavanaugh calls the shopping mall a "real, human, authentic environment--very earthy," adding that tenants will include a British "country fashion" store and a traditional women's sportswear chain.

"A lot of people who live here will shop here," Cavanaugh says. "People in Cambridge hate Copley Place."

Hotel manager James S. France says he expects need of his business to come from the corporate market, since the hotel offers services such a "teleconferencing" voice and date transmission between rooms twice a day mail service, and eight conference rooms.

Room rates have not been set yet France says, but will be "commensurate with other luxury hotels in Cambridge," such as the Hyatt, which charges about 150 a night.

Carpenter and Company, the developers, began the 10-story brick and granite building a year and a half ago on four acres of land behind the Kennedy School.

The site, originally intended for the John I. Kennedy Library, was placed on the market by the state after local pressure forced organizers to move the planned library.

Carpenter and Company has built several Hyatt hotels while Charles Square's architects, Cambridge the New England and Baltimore Aquariums.

"We're looking for the kind of shops that were at one point and moved out of Harvard Square," says project director Jeffrey McKenzie, adding that the stores won't "high fashion " or chain outlets.