Islandside hotel to be built first

The town is getting what it wanted.

One major issue town staff and commissioners had last summer with the Longboat Key Club and Resort’s proposed Islandside project was whether the five-star hotel and meeting center would be built first before the villas and other project components.

And that’s exactly what the club plans to do after two existing legal challenges are vetted.

Longboat Key Club and Resort General Manager Michael Welly told attendees at the June 16 Longboat Key Kiwanis Club meeting that the $400 million project’s hotel and its adjoining meeting center would be built after the Islandside golf course is renovated by golf course designer Rees Jones and before any of the proposed condominiums and villas are built.

Welly and Loeb Partners Realty officials spent months last summer in several hearings telling both the Longboat Key Planning and Zoning Board and the Longboat Key Town Commission that they could not build the hotel first because they needed the money generated from the sale of condominiums and villas to pay for the construction of the hotel and meeting center.

But Welly said that potential lenders want the hotel to be built first, because the financing isn’t available right now to build the residential portion of the project.

“The town and its commissioners wanted the hotel first, and we thought we needed the money to build it first,” Welly said. “But several lenders that have an interest in the project all want the hotel built first. So that’s what we will do.”

Welly said that if the two remaining legal challenges the Islandside Property Owners Coalition (IPOC) has levied against the project are settled, the club will submit a revised phasing schedule to the Longboat Key Planning, Zoning and Building Department.

Welly said it would take at least two years for the hotel to be finished once construction begins.
“My company has hung in there, even when they didn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Welly said.

When asked about IPOC’s writ of certiorari, which challenges the town’s Comprehensive Plan and the project, Welly said he’s confident that the Department of Community Affairs’ recent ruling in the town’s favor is a positive sign for the project’s outcome.

“At the end of the day, I can still stand up here and say we are right and they (IPOC) are not,” Welly said. “IPOC is still willing to spend its money and, in turn, our money, for what I believe is a fruitless battle to stall a project that will inject life into a depressed economy.”

Welly said the club is waiting for the green light.

“It’s frustrating because we are ready to go and so are the lenders,” Welly said. “We just need IPOC to show a little class, shake hands and work with us and the town to let the project proceed.”

Welly noted that, because of the economy, no one has come forward to take advantage of the town’s pool of 250 tourism units and that The Colony Beach & Tennis Resort has closed.

“We have lost close to 500 tourism units and we need to get those back,” Welly said. “Tourism keeps our businesses alive and is essential to restocking future citizens on this island.”

Sarasota Open to sweeten pot

Longboat Key Club and Resort General Manager Michael Welly said he wants to make sure the pot for the Sarasota Open, held annually at the Longboat Key Club and Resort Tennis Gardens, continues to increase.

A $75,000 pot this year attracted tennis star James Blake and resulted in sell-out crowds. Welly doesn’t want the momentum to fade.

“I am hoping for a $125,000 pot next year and a $400,000 pot the following year,” Welly said.

A $400,000 pot, Welly said, would garner the Sarasota Open a United States Tennis Association Top 25 tournament classification status and could attract a future ladies tennis tournament to the Key.

Welly said the Tennis Gardens facility has enough seating to accommodate approximately 4,000 people, which is mandatory to accommodate a Top 25 tennis tournament.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].