Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
JENNIFER FARRELLThe $130-million project would include a hotel, spa and condos on the current site of the Clearwater Beach Hotel.
CLEARWATER - St. Petersburg developer Mike Cheezem plans to build a $130-million luxury beachfront resort on Clearwater Beach that would rival such tony hotels as Tradewinds Island Grand and the Don Cesar.
In a deal with the Hunter Hotel Company, Cheezem's JMC Communities would tear down the landmark Clearwater Beach Hotel to make way for the new resort, planned on a 5.5-acre tract with700 feet of prime beachfront along the Gulf of Mexico.
The resort, with a 224-room, four-diamond hotel and spa with shops, restaurants and 120 condos, would be the first ever upscale resort development on Clearwater Beach.
"Our goal," Cheezem said, "is to create a classic beachfront resort."
The city would have to approve the development plans, which have not yet been submitted. Cheezem said he hopes to complete the project by early 2007.
City officials, who heard about the conceptual plans early Thursday, said they were universally pleased - and relieved - to learn that a hotel is part of the deal. Skyrocketing land prices have fueled a hot condo market on the beach, and a resulting loss of hundreds of motel units.
A resort project like Cheezem's, if successful, could spark similar redevelopment on other parts of the beach, Mayor Brian Aungst said.
"It's something that we desperately need," he said.
City Councilman Frank Hibbard said the resort would complement two other upscale condo projects Cheezem has developed north of the roundabout: Mandalay Beach Club, which is immediately to the south of the new site, and Belle Harbor, which is still under construction directly across Mandalay Avenue.
"Conceptually, it's what we have been searching for," Hibbard said. "It's starting to get a critical mass of luxury."
Early plans call for meeting space, a fitness center and a private beach club with a limited number of memberships for sale to the public, Cheezem said.
Hotel rooms would run $200 a night and guests and condo owners would have access to valet and concierge service as well as room service.
"It is a destination resort," said Ed Armstrong, the Clearwater attorney representing Cheezem.
For nearly 50 years, the 137-room Clearwater Beach Hotel has been owned and operated by the Hunter family, and its company will retain a partnership interest in the property.
Designs have not been completed, but Cheezem said the project will retain the intimate character of the Clearwater Beach Hotel, which opened in 1915.
The deal between JMC and Hunter does not include a series of storefronts on Mandalay Avenue, that are adjacent to the project land and are anchored by co-owner Tom Gionis Waterfront Restaurant.
Gionis has said he is not interested in selling, and Cheezem said he is prepared to move forward without the property. Gionis declined to comment Thursday.
In Clearwater, strapped with aging hotels and a stagnant redevelopment market, city officials set up a density "pool" three years ago to allow hotel developers to add more rooms to their projects. Rights to hundreds of resort hotel units were made available as a carrot to lure developers.
The city also tweaked its land use code and invested millions on streetscape improvements. So far, not a single resort project has broken ground.
But two other luxury resort hotels are proposed south of the beach roundabout. Both have been in negotiations for years and neither are directly on the beach.
Like those proposals, Cheezem's project would request units from the density pool. But to accommodate him, the city would have to amend its Beach By Design plan, the blueprint for beach redevelopment. That move, in turn, would require approval from the state Department of Community Affairs in Tallahassee.
Cheezem said he also will ask the city to vacate Beach Drive, which runs north-south through a portion of the property. Armstrong said there will be no request to vacate Baymont Street, which divides the property roughly in half and provides public access to the beach from Mandalay.
On Thursday, city officials said they are willing to consider Cheezem's requests.
"Two hundred twenty-four first-class resort units directly on the sand. That is an opportunity that is begging us to look at Beach By Design," said City Councilman Hoyt Hamilton. "I think it screams for it."
Elected officials also cited Cheezem's proven track record. In less than a decade, he has been involved in the development of about 500 condo units on Clearwater Beach and Sand Key, as well as projects in St. Petersburg, including Dolphin Cay and Florencia in downtown.
Cheezem, 50, also is working with Connecticut developer David Mack to redevelop the Holiday Inn Sunspree at the south end of Clearwater beach into condominiums.
"He's the real deal," Aungst said. "He's not a guy that will try to cut corners. When he says he's going to do something, he does it."
City Councilman Bill Jonson, likewise, was thrilled with the proposal.
"The only thing that would be better," Jonson said, "would be if it was in a really ratty area."