The Watchdog (a/k/a Robert Field) and S. Richard Gray (a/k/a “his honor the mayor”) worked together over a decade ago on an important community public health matter and have had a cordial relationship ever since, although not always agreeing.
The Watchdog in one of his other lives is a ‘half ass’ hotelier who drifted into the field as an extension of apartment complex development. While no great expert, he has disagreed with Gray concerning the viability of the Brunswick.
The mayor believes a major problem of the Brunswick is the lobby being on the second level. He expressed that view to the current owners and encouraged relocation. They have debated the matter.
The photos herewith were taken over the past weekend at the very successful Liberty Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the rare example of a hotel that is so well designed and situated as not to require any franchise affiliation. Note that the escalators transport guests from ground level to the second floor lobby. (The ground floor sports a very successful saloon.) 
Furthermore, there are a number of successful hotels elsewhere with second floor (or higher) lobbies.
It was the Watchdog’s opinion (and at one time apparently that of Charlie Smithgall and planning experts) that a smaller version of the convention center should have been developed at the Brunswick with the facilities restored to the original Hilton Hotel / four star status, thus taking a big step towards revitalizing the failed and blighted Lancaster Square. The Watchdog attributed the hotel’s rapid decline to the lack of sufficient commercial and tourist downtown overnight business. The convention center at the Brunswick would have made it viable.
Ironically, the ideal owner and developer was the High Group which sponsored the Convention Center Project and is an equitable owner of the attached Marriott Hotel. They could have purchased the Brunswick and adjoining theater for as little as $3 million, obtained government funding and tax relief, and ended up with a highly profitable enterprise. The total project would have cost less than $40 million rather than over $200 million, all costs now and future considered.
Later they could have purchased the Watt & Shand site and developed a mixed use residential condominium/ office / shops facility, per their original plan. Thus instead of having the convention center across the Lancaster Newspapers and creating a dead pedestrian block, the project would have stimulated activity and gentrification to the south.
The High Group was unique in its experience in dealing with governments and in its relationships with local and statewide officials.
The only productive purpose on reflecting on ‘what might have been’ is the hope society can learn for the future. We believe Lancaster already is.
I’ve been to a few hotels in NYC and Newark, NJ that have a similar layout as the Liberty Hotel and the Brunswick. One such hotel that I stayed at in Manhattan did have their front desk on the ground level and that was all that was on that level. To get to even any salon/eatery areas, you had to go to the second level. All levels above that were meeting spaces and the hotel rooms. For other properties, it was the second level where the front desk resided.
If you have ever been to Crown Center in Kansas City, you will see a very unique, and profitable, set up. Crown Center itself is basically a mall. It has three levels. On either side of the Center is a hotel that are linked together by a skywalk called “The Link”. The Hyatt Regency is on one end, the Westin Crown Center is on the other. An addition to “The Link” was added in 2000 that linked the Westin Crown Center to Union Station, a very prominent train station and historical landmark that gets thousands of tourists every year, not to mention being a working train station. For both the Hyatt Regency and the Westin Crown Center, people are brought to the second level of these establishments by “The Link”. If they are checking in, they have to go down to the ground level.
The problem with the Brunswick wasn’t the location of its lobby. I was at the Brunswick a couple years ago and yes there were a number of things my untrained eye saw that needed improving, but it had nothing to do with the lobby’s location. The Brunswick had a lot of potential, probably still does. What it needs is the right person to take over, pick it back up and restore it to the glory I’ve heard it once had. Unfortunately, we are in an economic time that isn’t going to see that happen right away. I, for one, would be saddened if it never happened. Hotels with franchise designations do tend to go the distance, but there is something to be said for non-branded properties that have a uniqueness to them. It’s a shame that Brunswick can’t find that uniqueness again.