Comment on Hotel developer gobbles up McDonald's site near AT&T Park

The 10-story hotel at Third and Townsend would provide much-needed rooms at the crossroads of tech-dominated SoMa and the mixed-use neighborhood that has popped up around the ballpark over the past decade, said project architect Michael Stanton of Stanton Architecture. The sidewalk in front of the McDonald's and adjacent lot is a popular spot before Giants games for ticket scalpers and freelance souvenir vendors and attracts a sometimes raucous crowd after big wins. Average room rates jumped 13.4 percent over the past 12 months to $203.18, according to STR Global, a hotel industry research group. The problem is that hotel builders looking to buy development sites are competing against office and housing builders - and right now the city is in a housing affordability crisis. Next year SOMA Hotels, an affiliate of Stanford Hotels Group, will break ground on a 15-story, 250-room boutique hotel - just across Lefty O'Doul Bridge from AT&T Park. Two historic vacant Mid-Market buildings, the Renoir Hotel and the Grant Building, will reopen as hotels catering to the tech companies that now line central Market Street.