Proposals Unveiled for Palm Ave Hotel

Either a 200-room Embassy Suites or a 150- to 200-room boutique hotel plus residences could come to Palm Avenue if the Sarasota City Commissioners approve one of the plans.

Construction documents and proposals for a hotel at 1289 N. Palm Ave. were released to the public Thursday for the first time after the 30-day negotiation period expired between the city and the two groups.

The Embassy Suites is proposed by the Bridges-McKibbon Team, which includes the Tampa-based McKibbon Hotel Management and the Gainesville, Georgia-based McKibbon Hotel Group.

The boutique hotel, packaged with other proposals including a take-over of and the , is proposed by the Floridays Development Co., and designed by , which designed the garage. 

A committee reviewing the proposals will recommend a plan to the Community Redevelopment Agency Advisory Board, which will then in turn recommend a plan to the Community Redevelopment Agency. It's estimated to be at least a two-month process for that to happen, said Jan Thonrberg, Sarasota's public information officer. The commissioners make up te agency.

Floridays Plan

Floridays is headed up by Angus Rongers of Sarasota who was involved in helping build the Grand Riveria in Sarasota and the Floriday Resort Orlando.

The hotel could open in summer 2014 if the city approves the plan and accepts the deal. The company is offering the city $3.8 million for the parcel and would hope to break ground in summer 2012, according to the documents.

Other optional deals the company is proposing is to upgrade and manage the city-owned Lido Beach pool and parking, operate and manage the Palm Avenue Parking Garage and lease and manage retail spaces in the garage. The city has this month, but the deal is not final. Biter would have to find companies to fill the spaces, too.

The pool deal would be packaged in to offer to hotel guests, but would also remain open to the public, according to the plan.

Floridays already has an option on the table to purchase the adjoining property at 1255 N. Palm Ave., it noted in the plan, and would help the project as guests would enter a lobby “running the length of Coconut Avenue.”

The Floridays plan calls for:

•  an “authentic and unique lifestyle hotel” with 150 to 200 rooms;

•  up to 12,000 square feet of “state of the art meeting space” that includes an 8,000-square-foot ballroom;

•  full service spa;

• restaurant and lounge;

• 24-hour hotel business center; and

• up to 40,000 square feet of condominium apartments — for rent or purchase depending on marking demand.

The rooms would include iPod docking stations, poster art, large HDTVs, upscale bathroom, complimentary high speed Internet and wireless access, and nightly turndown service with TCHO chocolates and a mini bar.

The company also noted in the plan the team’s civil engineers and landscape architects have renderings of what Cocoanut Avenue and its sidewalks could look like with the hotel’s improvements. 

Embassy Suites

The 200-room Embassy Suites hotel would be head up by Jim Bridges of Jebco Ventures and John McKibbon of McKibbon Hotel Group. 

The company details in its plan that it has built successful downtown hotels across the country including various Marriott brands such as Courtyard, Residence Inn and also have built Hampton Inn and Suites and Florida Aloft by W hotels.

The plan included renderings of what the hotel would look like along with the company’s portfolio and background, but no narrative on what the hotel would include.

Embassy Suites Hotels is a Hilton hotel brand created in 1983. Embassy Suites “the nation's largest brand of upscale, all-suite hotels with more total suites than any of its competitors,” according to the Embassy Suites corporate Web site.