Survey says: No hotel for Whitney

Whitney Beach Plaza owner Ryan Snyder spent more than $10,000 and a good portion of the summer investigating whether a 100-room boutique hotel would work on the north end of the Key.

The verdict?

“It’s simply not viable,” he said.

Snyder, whose Lakewood Ranch law practice consists 99% of work for the banking and real estate industries, said he reached out to approximately 40 hotel developers to provide input on the viability of a hotel.

“Some of my contacts are heavy-hitters in the hotel industry with flag hotels like Hyatt and Marriott,” said Snyder, who declined to divulge the names of the consultants who offered him hotel advice for the site. “They all said it won’t work.”

The main reason “is all about location, location, location,” Snyder said.

“No one’s interested because there is no sand in the backyard,”  he said. “It doesn’t even matter the beach is across the street.”

By comparison, various developers and parties are fighting over 18 acres of prime beachfront real estate with dilapidated structures at the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort.

“I spent millions upgrading the plaza, and the Colony property with broken down buildings is still worth six to seven times more than Whitney Beach,” Snyder said. “That tells you how much demand there is for beachfront.”

The other reason a hotel won’t work, Snyder said, is the 60% to 70% annual occupancy rates the study estimated for a hotel (see box, right).

“I’ve never dived into the hotel development business,” he said, “and I won’t do it with those recommendations and these numbers.”

Snyder said his only other option in the immediate future is to fill up the plaza with tenants before season.

He says he may have a grocery store-type tenant he can’t disclose for the large vacant anchor space who’s intrigued by his offer of free rent for three years. The tenant, Snyder says, already has six locations, in the Sarasota area.

“My main focus now is trying to get the stinking plaza leased,” he said. “I told Realtors to do whatever you have to do to get tenants in the plaza.”

The town is making code and comprehensive plan changes that could give Snyder more flexibility on the site. But for now, he is worried about how long he can hang onto the property.

“Ultimately, I can walk away from the plaza because I have no personal liability on my loan,” Snyder said. “I don’t want to do that. But I also don’t know what else to do if a sustainable plan for the property isn’t reached.”

Although town officials have been supportive of a hotel for the site, Snyder thinks Longbeach Village residents might support single-family home sites there, surrounded by just one-third of the commercial space of the plaza left standing around the homes.

“If the town is adamant about a hotel, they have to present me a developer that can do it because I can’t find one,” Snyder said.

Condos aren’t a possibility because the number of units that could be built on top of the plaza as part of a mixed-use development is too few to sustain such a project.

He believes the north end can only support 10,000 of the approximately 50,000 square feet of commercial space in the plaza.

“The only way I think it’s feasible on the residential side is if you keep an outparcel where the liquor store and a few retail shops remain, and the rest of the site becomes 15 to 18 single-family home sites,” Snyder said. 

Snyder said he’s likely to discuss with the town what kind of referendum is necessary for a future project that includes less commercial space and rezoning of some land.

Lands End resident and District 5 Longboat Key Town Commissioner Pat Zunz doesn’t think more homes is the answer. She hopes Snyder will talk with owners of the vacant bank and shuttered gas station parcels to come up with a way to use the three properties as a whole.

“Nothing is going to work until that gas station situation is resolved,” Zunz said. “The properties need to be looked at as one and not separate.”