Officials from Four Seasons, which hopes to open as many as eight new properties annually, according to its Web site, did not return a telephone call for comment.
If Four Seasons does commit, it would mark the second time the Toronto-based hotelier has considered Sarasota.
A decade ago, when plans to develop a Ritz-Carlton were jelling on an 11-acre tract on U.S. 41 at First Street, Four Seasons scouted the area and met with local economic development officials.
Kathy Baylis, president of the Economic Development Corp. of Sarasota County, said the company sought demographic and other material. Four Seasons has not contacted her of late, she said.
To make the project more palatable to Four Seasons, St. Regis Hotels & Resorts or InterContinental Hotels, Moyer said Lion’s Gate also has signed a contract to buy a site on Lido Beach, near the Ritz-Carlton’s $30 million Beach Club.
There, Lion’s Gate hopes to obtain approvals to develop up to 59 hotel rooms and related space. That way, guests of the five-star hotel could have both a downtown and beach experience, Moyer said.
“The opportunity would allow the hotel operator to offer beach access and amenities, and also provide hotel rooms for rent on the beach,” said Cook, who had until recently worked as a commercial agent and broker at Michael Saunders & Co. Inc.
She and Moyer, who are married, are jointly developing the San Marco Plaza in Lakewood Ranch.
Lion’s Gate intends to make a formal submittal for its project to city officials within 30 days, Moyer said. If approvals are obtained, Lion’s Gate would begin construction sometime in early 2008, and complete the project in phases beginning in 2010.
Lion’s Gate has retained renowned New York-based architect Perkins Eastman and local firm Lawson Group Inc. to design the 400 N. Tamiami Trail project.
The firm also is working with Freedman Consulting & Development LLC, a leading Sarasota land planning firm.
It has also hired Hotel Dynamics, a company led by the former head of Prudential Life Insurance Co.’s hospitality division, to assist with the hotel.
Tourism officials said a new, five-star hotel would boost marketing spending on the area and allow Sarasota to attract larger, higher-end meetings that presently are unable to squeeze into the 266-room Ritz-Carlton.
“Sarasota offers enough downtown amenities to make such a project attractive,” said Virginia Haley, president of the Sarasota Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Look where the demand is in Sarasota; it’s for hotel rooms in town.”
Even the proposed hotel’s chief competitor acknowledged a Four Seasons or like brand would help, not hurt, business.
Jim McManemon, the $130 million Ritz-Carlton’s general manager, said a second five-star hotel would “reaffirm what the Ritz-Carlton did by opening in 2001.”
“If Four Seasons came, it would be great for Sarasota and great for us,” McManemon said. “Four Seasons is a very good name. It’s luxury. If they chose to come here, it would say something.”
Four Seasons, which operates 73 hotels worldwide, has just a single lodging property in Florida, in Miami. Its average hotel contains 250 rooms.
But Lion’s Gate’s project faces a series of regulatory and other hurdles.
The biggest challenge will be traffic generation, and in meeting state and city concurrency rules.
To achieve the density it proposes, Lion’s Gate also might require a series of zoning changes.
Perception could also be an issue, because the tony project would sit directly across Cocoanut Avenue from the Sarasota Housing Authority’s 11-story McCown Towers, a 101-unit apartment complex occupied by senior citizens and poor, handicapped individuals.
But Moyer said McCown Towers’ presence won’t be an issue. Moreover, he said Lion’s Gate is considering ways to alleviate potential gridlock and meet traffic concurrency.
He is buoyed by the fact that in addition to U.S. 41, the site has access from Cocoanut Avenue and roads east.
For now, the Lion’s Gate team said they are confident and optimistic about the project.
“Hopefully the city will be just as excited about it as we are,” Moyer said.
By KEVIN MCQUAID
kevin.mcquaid@heraldtribune.com
Leave a Reply