Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Developer plans top-of-the-line hotel

By MICHAEL VAN SICKLER
Published January 5, 2007

A Clearwater development company plans to raze the Radisson Bay Harbor Hotel at Rocky Point and replace it with condominiums and a luxury hotel.

Orion Communities Inc. wants to build two towers on 6 acres at 7700 W. Courtney Campbell Parkway and west of Rocky Point Drive. Its request will go to the Tampa City Council in April.

One tower is slated to be a luxury hotel with 325 rooms and 20 condos. It also would have two hotel restaurants, a spa, a bar, a pool and a banquet hall. The second tower would be condos, and residents would share the hotel's amenities, said Rodney Moore, Orion's executive vice president.

Moore said the project, which will cost more than $300-million, hasn't named the hotel brand, but he promised it would be top of the line.

"Tampa is ready for a four- to five-star hotel," Moore said. "When we started researching it, we were surprised this city didn't already have one."

If City Council approves the request, Moore said construction could begin this fall and finish by 2009.

The Radisson, in addition to being a coastal landmark, was the scene of a particularly bloody episode in Tampa history.

On Dec. 30, 1999, a hotel employee went on a shooting rampage that left four co-workers dead and three wounded, along with a woman killed for refusing to give up her car.

[Last modified January 5, 2007, 01:25:46]