By George P. Hassett

Davis Square Task Force members heard plans for two hotels that could be coming to their neighborhood at a Monday meeting. Monica Lamboy, the city’s planning director presented the administration’s plan to sell one of three municipal properties to a hotel developer and Trish Blaine described a “connection center” with 100 hotel rooms to take the place of Sacco’s Bowl Haven.

Task force members listened to Lamboy outline development timelines and expressed concern that city officials will sell off the lot at Herbert and Day streets currently used for farmer’s markets.

“The mayor came here and swore up and down before all of us that no way is he going to sell that lot,” said task force member Lee Auspitz during Lamboy’s presentation.

“He didn’t quite say that but he did say the farmers market will not be displaced,” answered Ron Newman.

Lamboy said an independent study group commissioned by the city concluded Davis Square is a prime location for a hotel because of its close proximity to Tufts University, a Red Line train stop and the bike path. She said the city will start soliciting interest from developers this month.

The city is offering three sites – the Herbert and Day streets lot, the Buena Vista parking garage site or a small plot of land on Grove Street. Alderman-at-Large John M. Connolly said the Buena Vista site is the most likely candidate. He said he envisions something similar to the Charles Hotel in Harvard Square. “We don’t want a Motel 6,” he said.

The ultimate decision will be left up to Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone and the Board of Aldermen, Lamboy said. However, Ward 6 Alderman Rebekah L. Gewirtz said she was looking for neighbors to be involved in the project.

“Davis Square was built on community input, so I’m definitely looking forward to have the neighborhood work for a hotel that fits in here,” she said.

The hotel would feature 100 rooms and underground parking spaces, Lamboy said.

Newman said if less parking is provided the site may produce less traffic.

“Make it a hotel only accessible by the train. We should be able to fill 100 rooms with 20 or 30 parking spaces because the T is so close,” he said.

The second hotel proposal task force members heard Monday night came from Blaine, a 5-year resident of the square. She said she was in the midst of buying Sacco’s Bowl Haven, a Davis Square landmark in the neighborhood for more than 50 years. Once she secures that property and at least one more surrounding it, she will “keep a significant amount of bowling lanes” but convert most of the building into a “connection center that also has 100 hotel rooms.”

The connection center will feature a social networking room modeled after on-line communities such as Facebook and MySpace and rooms to rent for entertainment and work functions, she said. The connection center hotel will transform typical hotel conference rooms into engaging social centers that celebrate “a renaissance lifestyle,” she said.

Gewirtz said she was excited about Blaine’s concept and her willingness to meet with the task force. “And I love that she’s keeping the bowling lanes,” she said.