In Bradenton, Fla., Plans Proposed for Hotel near Waterfront

By Steve Hollister, The Bradenton Herald, Fla.
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News

Oct. 2--BRADENTON, Fla.--Another piece of the downtown Bradenton development puzzle was revealed Thursday when the city planning department confirmed plans for a 112-room hotel on U.S. 301/41 near Manatee Avenue.

The Country Inns and Suites hotel would be built just east of the city-owned waterfront property known as the "Sandpile" that is targeted for redevelopment, and north of the Bradenton Herald building.

Fisher Development Co., the Lancaster, Pa., company that owns the site, contacted the city about five months ago concerning the hotel and received City Council approval to sublease the land. The company later put those plans on hold, and the decision to revive the project was made only recently, according to Dennis Jordan, president of Fisher Development.

"We've had interest in that area for a long time as a company," Jordan said. "We're excited about moving forward with the property. We've been working with the city for a long time and appreciate their enthusiasm."

Fisher Development also owns the nearby Plaza del Rio building at 101 Riverfront Blvd., which houses the Mediplex Outpatient Rehabilitation Center.

Projected groundbreaking and completion dates are not being released until the project is further along in the approval process, Jordan said.

"The city has been very good to work with, and we want to be careful that we don't take advantage o that," Jordan said. "There is still a lot of work to do."

Sarasota engineering firm Wilson Miller Inc. will meet with planning officials Monday to go over Fisher's preliminary site plan, according to Ruth Seewer, planning department senior planner.

"We will tell them where we want what things, and they will tell us what they need and want," Seewer said.

If both sides are satisfied with the plans and any changes made by Oct. 8, the project could be listed on the Nov. 17 Planning Commission agenda for consideration, Seewer said. If the commission gives its go-ahead, the project could be before the City Council at its Nov. 24 meeting.All dates CQ'd

Based on details provided by Fisher Development when the project was first unveiled, Seewer said, there appear to be no major obstacles to the construction of the hotel.

"I'm sure they have a decent chance," she said. "We talked with them about it once before, and the hotel people just weren't quite ready to go forward at that time."

Coincidentally, "Sandpile" developer Bradenton Riverfront Partners will submit the preliminary designs for its project Monday, according to BRP partner Ed Vogler II. The centerpiece of that development is an 18-screen Regal Cinemas theater tentatively scheduled to be completed by Christmas 2000.

BRP had an upscale hotel in its plans for the "Sandpile" when Tropicana Products Inc. was considering the site for a new office building; that idea was shelved when Bradenton-based Tropicana decided to locate its new office in Lakewood Ranch in East Manatee County.

Nevertheless, Vogler doesn't see the Country Inns and Suites location as an impediment to BRP's long-term plans.

"I don't think it affects what we're doing," Vogler said. "Any redevelopment of the downtown area helps."

The hotel proposal also comes at a time when the nearby Holiday Inn Riverfront is undergoing a major renovation, Meanwhile, developers of Riviera Dunes are trying to attract a hotel to their project, just across the Manatee River in Palmetto.

Fisher Development has owned the Plaza del Rio building and the land where the hotel will be built since1984, Jordan said. The developer is working on "a number of different ventures with Country Inns and Suites," he said.

Country Inns and Suites, which declined to comment on Fisher Development's proposal for Bradenton, is a subsidiary of Minneapolis, Minn.-based Carlson Companies. Carlson also owns Radison Hotels, Regent International Hotels, TGI Fridays and a number of other restaurant, travel and entertainment companies. Carlson considers its 200 worldwide Country Inns and Suites hotels to be mid-range, three- to four-star hotels.

The private company had sales of $7.8 billion in 1998, an increase of 18.2 percent over the preview year. Carlson employs about 147,000 people worldwide.
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