Cambridge council makes big changes to proposed development at site of Old Preston Springs hotel

Cambridge council has passed a motion that will significantly reduce the number of stories and towers for a proposed development at Fountain and King St.

In a 8-1 motion, council reduced the number of towers to two and capped the number of storeys per tower to 15. The site located at 102 Fountain St. South, 199 Abraham St and 134 and 144 Fountain St. North, is the site of the old Preston Springs Hotel.

Laura Dewar, the supervisor of development planning for the City of Cambridge, said the staff wanted to have the design of the buildings have a 45 degree angle slope and reduce the height to 22 stories.

“This basically means that for every metre of setback, there can be one metre of height,” said Dewar.

In the original proposal, developers wanted to have three towers with a maximum height of 26 stories and 753 units. Noah Geist, a member of the development team, said the number of units will be impacted by the reconfiguration of the project.

“I think we would end up with between 620 and 640 units,” said Geist when asked by Ward 6 Councillor Adam Cooper.

A public meeting was held on Feb. 5 that had over 150 people in attendance. Some of the issue brought up included the buildings being too tall, too much density and not enough parking.

The building for the Preston Springs Hotel was demolished in December 2020 and had it’s heritage designation removed by the city in September 2022.

A holding provision is in place to secure other study and plan requirements before the development can begin.