According to an official with the town's conservation department here, the developer filed an environmental notification form with the state a number of months ago for the proposed $8.5 million project but they recently withdrew the filing. The official confirms for GlobeSt.com that the company no longer has plans to develop a hotel on the site because of "economic reasons." The town's planning department tells GlobeSt.com that formal plans were never submitted to the city. Calls to Benderson and to Gutierrez were not returned by presstime.

The 154-room hotel would have been located on a 4.5-acre site that is part of a 562-acre parcel purchased by the Gutierrez Co. from the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. last fall here and in neighboring Northborough. The property is the site of a former apple orchard and ignited a local controversy over the amount of pesticides in its soil.