ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.- The city of St. Petersburg could see it’s first major redevelopment project in more than a decade with the TradeWinds Resort’s proposal to add a 116-foot tall, 12-story hotel and parking garage.
TradeWinds CEO, Time Bogott, said they are really excited, the last major project in St. Petersburg was in 1999 when the Sirata added its tower. He said he hopes construction can start before the end of the year and that the hotel will be open for business by mid 2018.
The new hotel is being proposed as “Sugar Sands at TradeWinds Island Resorts on St. Pete Beach.” It will be built on the site of the former 200-room Coral Reef Hotel, a complex condemned by the city, that was demolished and purchased by the TradeWinds Resort in 2014.
The site is nearly 3 acres large, which brings the TradeWinds’ land package to almost 30 acres of beachfront property.
With the addition of the Sugar Sands, 5750 Gulf Blvd., the company would bring its total to four complexes. The existing TradeWinds Island Grand Resort, Guy Harvey Outpost and the Breckenridge at TradeWinds Resort with the Sugar Sands would bring the company’s total available timeshare and hotel rooms to around 800.
The Sugar Sands project is expected to cost $55 million. It will include 217 tourist rooms, and 810-space multi-story parking garage, a timeshare sales center, a spa and fitness center, a marketing office, a bar and a reception area. It will structurally feature a lower facade near the roadway building to a 12-story tower at the rear.
The project would be constructed on a property that sits in the midst of the city’s Large Resort and Gulf Boulevard Community Redevelopment zoning district and is subject to conditions of a settlement agreement signed by resident Jim Anderson. Anderson sued to block development he claimed would be beyond the capabilities of the city’s sewer system.
The agreement addressed the height of new hotels, the number of hotel rooms allowed, how required infrastructure improvements would be paid for and the rights of residents living adjacent to hotel properties.
The final study of the city’s sewer system should be completed by the fall.
City regulations also require large hotel projects to get a conditional use permit before construction begins. That permit will be determined by the Planning Board at its 2 pm.m meeting Tuesday at City Hall.
Bogott also mentioned that his company is discussing “leading a project” to loan the city around $4 million to pay for improving sewer lines.
City Manager Wayne Saunders did confirm that the city is talking about options of pairing with developers to speed things up with sewer improvements.
