Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/157038
Sarasota News Leader August 23, 2013 Page 39 transition into even more of a tourist destina- the city's public-private parking garage. If aption. proved, the State Street hotel would become the sixth proposed hotel downtown. A speThe Embassy Suites project also becomes the cial City Commission meeting to consider the fifth hotel tower proposed recently for downproject will be held Aug. 29. town. The others are the Floridays hotel on Palm Avenue; a 275-room hotel at Gulfstream The Embassy Suites plan could provide BridgAvenue and Tamiami Trail; a Kimpton Hotel es with a slight advantage in the race to build at Main Street and North Washington Boule- all these new downtown hotels. The project vard; and One Palm at South Palm Avenue and does not require any city zoning adjustments Ringling Boulevard. — expediting the process — and it is already On Aug. 15, Jebco Ventures also pitched a in the "design phase," Bridges told The Saraproposal to the city for the construction of sota News Leader. He hopes to start construca smaller, 100-room hotel and 30 residential tion in summer 2014, with a work schedule units above the planned State Street parking showing completion in less than a year and a half. garage. The State Street venture would have to be se- "I believe the timing is right," Bridges said. lected by the City Commission to be part of "Interest rates are still favorable." The property where a Kimpton Hotel is proposed at the intersection of Main Street and Washington Boulevard serves as a parking lot for 12th Judicial Circuit Court. Photo by Norman Schimmel