Property owner Harry Walia said the change in hotel “flag” would likely occur if a Hyatt internal study determines the all-suites hotel, planned for the site of Patrick’s restaurant, would compete with the Chicago chain’s other area properties.
“They’ve looked at the site and they’re interested in it, they like it,” Walia said of the 1400-1410 Main St. property, also home to Tropical Thai and Patellini’s Pizza restaurants.
Hyatt declined to comment on the proposed 102-room hotel because the project has not yet received city approval.
The company’s name is on two other Sarasota hotels, a 294-room Hyatt Regency on Boulevard of the Arts, and a 114-room Hyatt Place that opened recently at the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. If built, the Summerfield Suites would compete most with Hyatt Place.
“We have other options,” Walia said. “Starwood Hotels, a Hilton product, InterContinental are all interested.”
Hyatt is the only potential brand mentioned in submissions to the city, however.
“The proposed hotel flag will be Hyatt Summerfield Suites, where all the rooms are designed to the standards of of Hyatt suites layouts,” Walia’s architect, Al Ramphal, wrote in a letter to city planners on March 26.
Walia has issues that any hotel operator may find troubling, though.
He owes nearly $83,000 in delinquent property taxes dating to 2008, county records show.
If they remain unpaid, they will be included in a June 1 tax certificate auction.
But Walia says that will not occur. The taxes will be paid “next week,” he said Monday.
“It was a business decision to keep it that way,” Walia said, declining to elaborate.
Walia’s plan also faces opposition from city planners, who say preliminary hotel designs fail to meet Sarasota’s zoning code. The plans, they contend, would require numerous “adjustments.”
Specifically, planners say Walia’s garage site in the building will be a “substantial” issue, as will designs that show elevators and the hotel’s lobby encroaching into required recesses.
Ramphal’s designs also intend to “celebrate” the corner of Main Street and Pineapple Avenue by ignoring a 12-foot, required building recess at certain floors.
“A celebration of the corner by contradicting code requirements for a building recess is not an acceptable means of celebrating the corner,” David Smith, a city planner, wrote Ramphal last week.
But the biggest unresolved issue is building height. Because Walia’s property contains two different zoning classes — one that allows 18 stories and another that provides for just 10 floors — the property owner would have to request a special exemption.
Under a 2003 settlement to a city zoning code challenge, only two buildings in the so-called Downtown Core area — which includes 1410 Main — may be built to 180 feet in height. One of the buildings, slated to be constructed at Pineapple Square, already has been designated.
City officials are under pressure to consider Walia’s hotel because it is one of the only major real estate projects proposed downtown since 2005.
If Walia were to request the height exemption, however, he would not be able to also request adjustments, and designs would have to meet all zoning requirements.
Walia maintains the city’s zoning rules are excessive.
“It’s very broad, the code,” Walia said. “It has hundreds of items, and if you don’t meet just two items, they can say you don’t meet the code. In my mind, we have the zoning. Before they draw a line through somebody’s property, maybe they ought to go visit it.”
There are 34 Summerfield Suites Hyatt hotels in 15 states. In Florida, there are two Summerfield Suites, in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, according to Hyatt’s website.
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