 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Progress on hotels downtown hit, miss
By SHARON L. BOND, Neighborhood Times Business Editor ST. PETERSBURG -- Three hotel projects are in various stages of development downtown, from construction about to start to renovation stalled and one case in between. Here is a status report: Hampton Inn & SuitesConstruction will begin in about a month on a vacant lot next to the Florencia luxury condominiums at 80 Beach Drive NE. It will be the first new hotel built downtown in 10 years. JMC Communities, which also built the Florencia, is the developer. The $8-million project will have 91 rooms, and about 30 will be configured in suites. Nightly rates will average about $100, according to J. Michael Cheezem, JMC chief executive. "There will be quite a range of rates with suites and regular rooms in-season and off-season," Cheezem said. The exterior of the four-story hotel will have architectural features reminiscent of the Florencia, Cheezem said. "We anticipate completing the hotel by the end of the year. We will open in early January 2003 for the winter season," Cheezem said. Former Bond HotelRenovation has stopped, according to owner Frans Geraets of Holland. "We ran out of money so we stopped." Geraets said "looking for investors, especially after Sept. 11" has been a struggle. "It's very difficult to get money out of Europe now." Only 26 of the 101 rooms are finished. Geraets said the common areas, such as hallways leading to the rooms, were not finished so even the completed rooms cannot be used. "I'm totally stuck," Geraets said. "I'm working on refinancing," but lenders are wary of hotels since tourism dropped after Sept. 11. He bought the 1932 hotel from the Bond family four years ago and installed a management company that started renovations in January 2001. The work was expected to cost $1-million and be completed by last summer. The hotel at 421 Fourth Ave. N took back its original name, Hollander, and the new owner added Park Inn. It was painted in yellows and golds like BayWalk. Geraets said he does not know what he is going to do now. He needs investors. "I wouldn't like to sell it now because I wouldn't get enough money back," he said. Pennsylvania HotelRenovation began on the hotel at 300 Fourth St. N in late 2000. A $2-million makeover was planned by David Moore, who bought the 1925 hotel from the Bond family in mid 2000. The glass windows of the seven-story hotel are papered over, and no work is evident. "We are still redoing it," Moore said Monday. "It's not being sold or torn down." But Moore could not say exactly what was up with the city's last seasonal hotel. "I don't have a lot of information. I hope soon I will be able to disclose" what is happening with the building, Moore said. Initial plans called for a reduction from 130 rooms to 84, and restoration of as many of the Art Deco details as possible. Moore said early last year that the Pennsylvania would be a smaller, specialty hotel. It was supposed to open last summer.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times South Pinellas desks |
