New Fruitville Road hotel nears administrative approval

Receiving partial sign-off and a reprieve from three adjustment requests, a new hotel planned for the south side of the 1500 block of Fruitville Road has only a few more details to address before consideration for administrative approval.

To be developed under the entity AV Florida Sarasota Hotel LLC, a subsidiary of AV Florida Holdings LLC with a principal address in Dunedin, Tempo Hotel is proposed to replace three one-story structures at 1524, 1534, and 1542 Fruitville Road. Led by Benedikt Fritzsche and wife, Eliza Garcia Bello, the developer acquired the property from Donna and Lawrence Lerner in December 2024. 

The developer had been pursuing two administrative adjustments to reduce the required depth of habitable space from 20 feet to 16.4 feet and to reduce the required recess from 12 feet to 9 feet, plus a Planning Board adjustment to allow parking on the second level. That, however, was under the assumption that Fruitville Road is likely to be designated as a primary street.

Because the application was submitted prior to an impeding City Commission vote to consider adding Fruitville Road to the roster of primary streets, which carries a multitude of stricter street level requirements, project consultant Joel Freedman advised the DRC the requests for all three adjustments will be withdrawn. The site is within the Downtown Core zone district, which subjects to only administrative approval.

The proposed project on the 0.45-acre site will replace the existing 9,919 square feet of retail space with a 10-story building that includes 125 hotel rooms and an amenity floor. 

The hotel is planned as a Tempo by Hilton, but in that industry, hotel flags are subject to change. Among the code conflicts referenced in the initial submission in December 2024 was language of rooftop outdoor bar, which requires a major conditional use permit. As it turns out, the space is only outdoor seating with no bar included.

“We've added to this just correcting the note to remove the bar language, since this will only be outdoor seating,” said Development Review Senior Planner Tom Sacharski. 

“We’ve barred the office from ever using the word bar again,” said Chris Gallagher of Hoyt Architects.

Hotel construction, which has yet to be scheduled, will mean demolition of three connected buildings on the site, displacing tenants Antiques & Chatchkes, Summer Home and Garden, Todburn Antiques and Downtown Hair Studio.