Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL)

Developer pitches St. Armands hotel plan

February 11, 2005
Section: A SECTION
Page: A1
   KEVIN McQUAID kevin.mcquaid@heraldtribune.com

John Ringling's dream of building a Ritz- Carlton hotel to complement St. Armands Circle washed away like a Lido Beach sand castle when the circus magnate hit a rough financial patch in the 1920s.

Eight decades later, the plan to develop lodging near the shopping mecca is being resurrected by the group behind downtown Sarasota's Beau Ciel luxury condominium and the Orchid Beach Club resort. U.S. Assets Group Inc. describes its plan to develop an 80-room boutique hotel and town houses on a two-acre, city-owned lot at Fillmore Drive, Adams Drive and Monroe Drive just off the circle as "very preliminary."

But the concept, outlined in a series of recent meetings with residents, merchants and landowners, appears to be gathering widespread support.

"Conceptually, it's a great idea," said Martin Rappaport, a St. Armands landlord and one of three members of an area business improvement district board. "It would bring the type of clientele we're looking to attract, to bring vitality to the circle."

"Conceptually, I'm very excited about the idea of something going in that parking lot," said Maureen Hoyt, president of the St. Armands Association, a merchant group, and owner of Optional Art Fine Jewelry, at 16 S. Boulevard Of Presidents.

If U.S. Assets' plan for its five-story hotel and parking garage is approved, it would become the latest in a trio of proposed lodging properties that would significantly boost tourism marketing money.

A 100-room Homewood Suites extended stay hotel is slated to open on Fruitville Road later this month, and by March 2006, a 95-room Hotel Indigo is slated to open at Boulevard of the Arts and U.S. 41.

Combined, the three hotels would contain 275 new rooms and generate roughly $294,000 a year in local bed tax revenues, along with additional sales tax.

The new projects also would reverse losses of tax- producing hotel rooms to condominium conversions, a trend that visitor officials have lamented as potentially devastating to future marketing efforts.

In the past three years, Sarasota and Manatee counties have lost more than 600 hotel rooms to condos, as hotels like the Half Moon Beach Club and Inn By the Bay have shuttered to make way for condos.

"This year will be the first year in three years to reverse our hotel inventory numbers," said Virginia Haley, executive director of the Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau.

And still more hotels may be in the offing.

Irish American Partners, the Dublin-based development team planning $1 billion worth of redevelopment at the Sarasota Quay, remains interested in constructing a hotel on or around the 11-acre property.

At the same time, hotel developers continue to eye the Sarasota Fairgrounds as a site for future rooms, fairgrounds officials said.

"Because we are losing hotel rooms, we're exploring an opportunity that could serve that clientele," said Tom Brown, a U.S. Assets' partner.

He declined to make further comment on the company's plans for St. Armands until after U.S. Assets is able to meet with the city commissioners on the issue.

Brown knows firsthand about the loss of hotel rooms: U.S. Assets razed the 84-room Half Moon Beach Club to build the $105 million, 11-story Orchid Beach Club.

But U.S. Assets' plans to build a hotel at St. Armands face numerous stumbling blocks.

Most notably, the developer will have to convince nearby residents and merchants that the replacement of the parking lot won't cause increased traffic congestion or neighborhood access problems.

Under a preliminary plan, the hotel would be accessed from St. Armands and not the surrounding neighborhood, said Bruce Franklin, the president of the ADP Group Inc., the architectural firm designing the project.

U.S. Assets also will have to persuade merchants that in the long run the project will be worth the temporary loss of the 225 public parking spaces.

"Parking would be our main issue," Hoyt said.

The parking lot cost $750,000 to build. It was opened in 1995, after Sarasota sold 20-year bonds and agreed to a special landowner assessment to finance the project, said city spokesman Jan Thornburg.

The closest hotel to St. Armands Circle now is the Holiday Inn at Lido Beach, a 135-room hotel completed in 1973.

"I wouldn't be opposed to the redevelopment of that lot if the parking were replaced and as long as the developer is sensitive to the surrounding neighborhood," said Commissioner Mary Anne Servian.

Because the property is city-owned, Sarasota would have to seek proposals from other developers before entering into any agreement with U.S. Assets, which is also developing the 700-acre Founders Club golf course community in Sarasota County.

To help persuade city officials and others the hotel is a sound idea, U.S. Assets is offering an amenity St. Armands merchants have clamored for for more than a decade: public restrooms.

Hoyt said the addition of restrooms, along with the proposed town houses, could help boost support for the project.

"It seems like it would enhance what is already here," Hoyt said. "And when you consider the caliber of the developer and the type of projects they've historically produced, for me that adds to the merits of looking into this proposal further."

Caption: STAFF PHOTO / CHIP LITHERLAND / chip.litherland@heraldtribune.com
U.S. Assets' is proposing a hotel on a two-acre, city-owned lot at Fillmore Drive, Adams Drive and Monroe Drive just off the circle.
"This year will be the first year in three years to reverse our hotel inventory numbers." VIRGINIA HALEY, executive director of the Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau