Mosaic Development Partners Thursday got a zoning change it needs to convert legendary Philadelphia boxing venue Blue Horizon into a boutique hotel with restaurants and a jazz club.

Philadelphia City Council voted unanimously to adopt Zoning Bill 120015, which changes 1314-16 North Broad Street from C-2 Commercial to C-4 Commercial and allowing additional uses.

Mosaic wants to change a historic mansion and other properties at 1314-16 North Broad Street into an eight-story, 80-plus room hotel with event space, day spa, jazz club, and a restaurant with a distillery, to be called The Hotel Blue on Broad.

At the recommendation of the city planning commission, the original bill was amended to remove non zoning-related provisions of the bill, such as an exemption from Philadelphia's smoking ban. Since the ban is not part of the zoning code, planning staff didn't believe the bill would actually provide that relief, even if passed with the language intact.

But City Council did not follow planning's recommendation to change the zoning designation of the entire block bounded by Broad Street, Master Street, Carlisle Street and Thompson Street from C-2 to C-4, in order to avoid any accusations of spot zoning. The bill applies only to Mosaic's property.

See previous coverage here and here.