Hotel plans progress, falter

One developer is moving forward with plans for a hotel east of U.S. 301 near downtown Sarasota, while another has withdrawn a project after failing to close the purchase of a county-owned site.

Last summer, the county approved the sale of the land at 20 N. Washington Boulevard to Versaille St. Germain LLC for $3.3 million. L. Ronald Gray, the company’s owner, intended to build a 10-story five-star hotel with up to 140 rooms on the .95-acre parcel. After the county declined his request for an extension to finalize the purchase in March, however, Gray said the project will not come to fruition.

Gray said investors in the Hotel Laurent project pulled out when they learned the site was not in a designated opportunity zone, as they originally thought. Although Gray believed he could pull together financing within 30 days, he said the county was not interested in giving him more time. Gray said he had no plans to look for a new site for the project, citing the proliferation of other hotels in the area.

“I think I may have dodged a bullet, quite frankly, with too many products coming into Sarasota,” Gray said.

Meanwhile, another hotel proposal that first popped up last summer is moving forward. In March, Tampa company HG Acquisitions LLC filed a site plan for a 121-room Marriott Residence Inn near the northeast corner of Fruitville Road and East Avenue. The proposed four-story hotel project also includes two residential units, according to the development application.

Last July, HG Acquisitions filed preliminary plans for the hotel, which then called for 131 hotel rooms. The project would require the demolition of three single-family homes on the property.

Elsewhere, although the city’s Planning Board rejected a proposal in February to build an additional 102 hotel rooms near Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, the City Commission will hold a public hearing on the plans without forcing the developer to file a formal appeal.

SRQ 2 and SRQ 3 LLC are the leaseholders for the properties at 965 University Parkway and 995 Airport Circle. The developers hope to build a 132-room hotel on University Parkway and a 60-room hotel at 995 Airport Circle. The city previously approved the construction of 92 rooms on University Parkway.

A hearing on the plans is set for Monday’s commission meeting. City Attorney Robert Fournier said an appeal is not necessary because the developer agreed to a procedural change that “essentially mooted” the Planning Board’s site plan denial, according to Monday’s agenda.