Room for growth?

Kevin Daves is following a path a handful of Sarasota developers recently took: spearheading a plan for a hotel project in downtown Sarasota. Despite the crowded field, he’s unafraid of oversaturating the market.

“The amount of hotels going up is really more of a positive than a negative,” Daves said. “We each benefit off of each other.”

Daves, the president of Core Development, is teaming up with Toronto-based Palsar Developments Inc. to bring an 18-story building with a 200-room Marriott Hotel and 40 condominium units to 332 N. Tamiami Trail. The group, which submitted plans to the city’s Development Review Committee Wednesday, hopes to complete the project by 2017.

Given the confluence of hotel projects announced over the past two years, the question of whether the city can handle the influx naturally arises. Already, five companies have unveiled plans to join the downtown hotel market, and they are slated to add nearly 1,000 rooms to the heart of the city by the end of 2016.
The boom is even more pronounced in a small corridor along U.S. 41. Palsar’s project is located just north of Fruitville Road on Tamiami Trail. One block south, at Second Street and Tamiami Trail, Jebco Ventures is developing an 18-story, 200-room Embassy Suites. Two blocks south of that, at Gulfstream Avenue, twin 18-story towers are under construction as part of Vue Sarasota Bay, which will include 275 Westin hotel rooms and 144 condominium spaces.

That’s also not taking into consideration the future of the Sarasota Quay property, which Jacksonville developer GreenPointe Holdings LLC recently purchased. Under previous ownership, the 14-acre bayfront site near Fourth Street was approved for nearly 700 residential units and 175 hotel rooms. Taken together, one four-block stretch of U.S. 41 could add about 650 hotel rooms before the end of the decade.

Still, Daves is unwavering in his belief in the proposed Marriott project. He has firsthand experience with hotel projects in the area, having overseen the construction of the Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota. He says times have changed since the project’s completion in 2002 — the number of hotel rooms in the area has actually decreased, as some spaces have been converted for residential use and motels have fallen out of favor.

Considering the changing dynamics of the city since the early 2000s, Daves believes there’s plenty of room for growth.

“Back then, the flights were fewer; the people going downtown were fewer,” Daves said. “It was a completely different city than it is now.”

Even if the demand exists for the hotel growth in downtown Sarasota, questions also remain about whether the infrastructure exists to support that demand. The stretch of U.S. 41 from Gulfstream to Fruitville fails to meet the city’s established level of service, producing long, unpredictable delays for motorists. Residents have already attempted to fight against the Vue Sarasota Bay project for fear of additional traffic congestion.

Daves argues that traffic won’t be as big of an issue for the Marriott development — there are fewer hotel rooms and residential spaces and more access points to major roads. Because the building would be further from the John Ringling Causeway, there would be fewer problems stemming from the added trips the project creates.

Both Daves and the city hope existing issues will be mitigated by the installation of a series of roundabouts along U.S. 41. Two roundabouts are slated for the intersections at Fruitville and Gulfstream, and city staff believes eliminating stoplights at those heavily trafficked streets will improve the flow of vehicles. Construction on those roundabouts is still years away, the city has said, and are going through the Florida Department of Transportation planning process now.

Even if it wished to halt development along that stretch of U.S. 41, the city doesn’t have much say in new development. City engineer Alex DavisShaw has said that builders are responsible only for addressing the additional traffic they will add to the city’s streets, not for fixing existing issues. Even if the road is substandard, unless a new project is creating its own problems, the city cannot restrict the rights of developers to build on their land.

“If the network is already failing, it’s up to the (city) to make it operational,” DavisShaw said. “I think that’s really part of the problem.”

Developing land
The stretch of U.S. 41 between Fruitville Road and Gulfstream Avenue is already a heavily trafficked area. Over the next several years, the area will undergo significant changes, some of which will add to the activity along the corridor:

Marriott Hotel
Where: 332 N. Tamiami Trail
Stories: 18
Hotel rooms: 200
Residential units: 40
Targeted completion: 2017

Embassy Suites Hotel
Where: 202 N. Tamiami Trail
Stories: 18
Hotel rooms: 200
Targeted completion: 2016

Sarasota Quay
Where: Fruitville Road and Tamiami Trail
Previous approval: Residential units: 695
Hotel rooms: 175
Retail space: 190,000 square feet
Office space: 40,000 square feet
Targeted completion: TBD 

Vue Sarasota Bay
Where: Gulfstream Avenue and Tamiami Trail
Stories: 18
Hotel rooms: 275
Residential units: 144
Targeted completion: 2016

Roundabouts
Where: Along U.S. 41 at Fruitville Road and Gulfstream Avenue
Undergoing state review
Targeted completion: TBD