A nearly one-acre stretch of surface parking on Spring Street in downtown Delaware could soon give way to a new hotel, as the City of Delaware moves to transfer control of the land for construction of a project called Hotel Wesleyan. The proposed hotel would sit on Spring Street between South Franklin and South Sandusky streets, just blocks from the Ohio Wesleyan University campus.
The plan comes from Westwood Collective, a Hilliard-based real estate firm, according to The Columbus Dispatch. It follows earlier hotel proposals in the area, including efforts involving the Spring Street parcel and a former Ohio Wesleyan fraternity house.
A Site With a Troubled History
The Spring Street parcel has already swallowed one hotel dream. Between 2020 and 2022, developer Indus Hotels pursued a six-story, 118-to-126-room Tru by Hilton at 7 and 27 Spring Street, an effort that stalled after the city authorized a lease for three parcels at 7 and 27 Spring Street and separately referred to a fourth parcel across the street, as detailed by The Delaware Gazette.
That was not downtown Delaware's only failed lodging bid. A separate proposal for a 43-room Wesleyan Inn behind the historic Perkins House on West William Street was abandoned by developer Jim Manos in January 2020, with the Gazette's earlier reporting citing labor shortages and project delays before the owner ultimately listed the property for sale. Just this month, the Delaware Planning Commission denied a conditional use permit for another concept entirely — the Delta House Inn, developer Jared Jablonka's plan to convert a former Ohio Wesleyan fraternity house at 163 N. Franklin St. into a boutique hotel, after neighboring residents raised concerns about converting the old Delta Tau Delta house into commercial lodging, according to the Delaware Source.
A Developer With Deep Local Ties
Westwood Collective's pitch carries different weight than its predecessors because of who is behind it. Founder and CEO Andy Warnock is a Delaware native and 2006 graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, where he now serves as Vice-Chair of the Woltemade Center for Economics Board of Directors, per information from the university. Warnock founded the Hilliard-based firm in 2018 after a career in real estate, and the company's portfolio now spans more than 2,100 residential units across the Midwest.
Warnock's investment in the city runs beyond the hotel proposal. Westwood Collective just purchased Delaware's 8,500-square-foot Historic Jail and Sheriff's Residence, an 1878 building on the National Register of Historic Places, for $412,000 from the Delaware County Historical Society, with plans to convert it into mixed-use office space and a potential cell-block speakeasy, according to The Times of India. The 18-cell facility operated as a working county jail until 1988. Last year, Warnock and fellow OWU alumnus Cole Antle made a historic seven-figure gift to establish the Westwood Fellows Program at the university, which offers training in real estate and community development.
Growth Pressures Downtown
Ohio Wesleyan's 200-acre campus is part of the broader growth picture. The city of Delaware itself is part of the broader growth picture, and Delaware County is also part of the region's growth story.
Westwood Collective is not new to the kind of adaptive-reuse projects Delaware's downtown favors. Hoodline previously covered the firm's bank vault revival in Central Ohio, a project that similarly paired historic infill with new commercial use. Whether Hotel Wesleyan can succeed where the Tru by Hilton, the Wesleyan Inn and the Delta House Inn all fell short will likely hinge on the same zoning approvals and neighborhood buy-in that have challenged hotel proposals near the campus.
