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The vision Ocean Properties Ltd. has pitched to community associations around the Key call for a redeveloped Longboat Key Club Islandside property with a 259-unit hotel, expanded meeting space with 10 to 12 meeting rooms and approximately 93 condominium/villa units that are 130 feet tall. If the vision comes to fruition, Ocean Properties will invest approximately $100 million into the property.

But the public won’t see specifics of that vision unless voters approve tourism use on the property in a May 12 mail-only referendum. Ocean Properties has not created a concept plan and doesn’t intend to prepare an application to the Longboat Key Planning, Zoning and Building Department unless voters approve the new use.

The referendum will ask voters if the town can allow up to 300 new units with tourism and accessory uses within certain portions of the Key Club property. 

Mark Walsh, vice president of Ocean Properties, divulged some plans for a new project to the Longboat Observer last week. 

If approved, plans call for locating all of the new development along New Pass on the south side of Longboat Club Road. 

Ocean Properties also plans to move Longboat Club Road if it receives permission from the Longboat Key Association Inc., which owns the road, to the north, away from the proposed development and closer to where an Islandside driving range now sits. A left-turn lane designated for the proposed hotel is also proposed, allowing Islandside residents a dedicated lane to bypass the hotel and head west toward a relocated gatehouse that will sit farther west past the new hotel.

“Moving the gatehouse past the new hotel eases traffic congestion concerns from the new development,” Walsh said. 

Forty-eight of the condominium units, though, won’t be built as part of the initial project. They are planned where the Chart House Restaurant and other businesses now sit.

 “We don’t have the ability to cancel long-term leases on that property, so we have to let those run their course,” Walsh said. “That development is years down the line.”

The hotel’s approximate location will replace Islandside tennis courts along New Pass. A 45-unit condominium project is planned for west of the future hotel.

“We’ve already spent more than $10 million on Key Club golf courses and upgrades since we’ve been here,” Walsh said.  “We have a lot more we want to do to make it better for guests and members. Our commitment to this area is long term.”

Walsh said the biggest sticking point for residents was moving everything south of Longboat Club Road. 

“There won’t be meeting space, a parking garage or anything north of the road,” Walsh said. 

Walsh declined to estimate the amount of meeting space he will seek but said his company needs at least 10 to 12 small breakout meeting rooms that can hold 15 to 20 people each, plus a ballroom. 

Walsh, who lives in Delray Beach, has spent two to three days on Longboat Key on average for more than a month talking to community associations islandwide to discuss the project and make residents aware of the mail-only referendum. 

If  voters approve tourism use, Ocean Properties will begin the planning process. (See sidebar, right.)

“It would take at least two-and-a-half years to get ready to build,” Walsh said. “Maybe longer.”

Walsh said price points for condos and even an architectural style for the hotel and other development haven’t been discussed yet.

“The focus so far has been coming up with a solution with neighbors and getting something everybody is OK with,” Walsh said. “We’re taking it one step at a time. Now it’s on to the referendum. All I can say is if it’s approved and built, it will be as nice of a hotel and development as there is any place in the country.”

 IPOC president confident about Key Club support

Islandside Property Owners Coalition President Bob White is confident that managing members of IPOC will support Ocean Properties Ltd.’s plans for allowing tourism use at the Longboat Key Club Islandside property.

White told the Longboat Observer last month that he’s seen a tentative plan and “is a lot happier with it than the plan (former owner Loeb Partners Realty) was proposing.”

Specifically, White said he supports a project that has all of the development on the south side of Longboat Club Road. IPOC had concerns about the past project that called for a meeting center on the north side of the road and a walkway across the road to funnel visitors from the meeting space to a hotel. 

The agreement also calls for:

No additional density requests allowed within Islandside after this project for 25 years;

Roadway modifications: a separate entrance lane for residents between Gulf of Mexico Drive and a relocated gatehouse;

No amplified music or other sounds after 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday;

No more than 10 special events per year and a maximum of three special events during the season.

Managing members have until April 17 to sign and send back to White an agreement that Ocean Properties Vice President Mark Walsh has already signed. 

Ocean Properties Ltd. has worked to gain support for a future Key Club project from IPOC and surrounding properties even before it purchased the property in October 2012 for $32 million.

Walsh believes communication with IPOC led to the pending approval on the agreement.

 “What we’ve tried to accomplish over the last couple of years is meet with neighbors, get their input and come up with a development here they can feel comfortable with,” Walsh said. “We’ve worked hard, and they’ve worked hard, and we’ve reached a point we think they can support it.”

— Kurt Schultheis