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Long Awaited Project Would Bring JW Marriott Luxury Hotel to Clearwater Beach

Marriott Luxury
After four years of planning, one of the world’s top luxury hotel brands — JW Marriott — finally could be coming to Clearwater Beach.

Sales are to begin this week for 36 fully furnished JW Marriott Residences, the first of their kind in the United States. They would occupy four upper floors of what also would be a 166-room JW Marriott hotel, one of only about 75 worldwide.

It would be Tampa Bay’s first five-star hotel.

“This is a big deal,” hotelier Uday Lele said Monday of the $120-million project that would replace his DreamView Resort at 691 S. Gulfview Blvd. “I feel that to have this name brand come to Clearwater Beach will benefit all of Tampa Bay in a very big way.”

Lele’s Enchantment LLC is announcing its affiliation with Marriott at a time of unprecedented hotel activity in the Tampa Bay area. Two large new resorts — Opal Sands and the Wyndham — recently opened on Clearwater Beach, and at least 27 other bay area hotels, including several upscale ones, are planned or under construction with a total of 4,000 rooms.

Early last year, Lele said he was in talks with Marriott International about the project. At the time, though, the world’s largest hospitality company said only that while it considered Tampa Bay “a great destination for our JW Marriott Brand,” it had no specific plans for the area yet.

Condo and Hotel Rooms
But on Monday, Marriott confirmed that it had given Lele the green light to launch sales of the condos on the Multiple Listing Service under the JW Marriott name. The one-, two- and three-bedroom units, ranging from about 850 to 1,350 square feet, will be priced from $550,000 to $1.3 million and could be occupied by the owners for a month at a time, Lele said. When rented out, the condos would serve as suites for the hotel and be managed by Marriott.

The 166 traditional hotel rooms would occupy the rest of the 15-story building, which would have an infinity pool, outdoor decks at various levels and a Spa by JW. Plans also call for two restaurants, one similar to the market- style Burlock Coast Seafare & Spirits in Fort Lauderdale, the other serving Peruvian-Japanese fusion cuisine.

The rooms, residences and restaurants all would have views of the 300-foot private beach, which faces Sand Key across an inlet and also looks toward the Gulf of Mexico.

Because of a jog in the coastline, ”in the morning you can see the sun rise and in the evening you can see the sun set,” Lele said. “This is a very special spot, so tranquil and serene.”

Construction could start this fall after the existing hotel is razed and would take about two years, Lele said. He said he has obtained a construction loan.

An expert on the hospitality industry said Lele’s affiliation with Marriott would help the viability of the project, which would be Tampa Bay’s first five-star hotel under a brand name.

“The location is a very good one,” Lou Plasencia, CEO of Tampa’s The Plasencia Group, said Monday. “Anything in that area I think will do well given the amount of visitor traffic that Clearwater Beach has seen of late. Visit St. Pete/Clearwater would welcome any new hotel in that area, especially one of this caliber.”

JW Marriott ranked No. 3 in the luxury segment in J.D. Powers & Associates 2016 North American Guest Satisfaction Study, behind Ritz-Carlton (another Marriott brand) and Four Seasons. The JW chain has two hotels in Miami, one in Orlando and the recently opened JW Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort in Southwest Florida.

“Many other brands approached me because of the uniqueness of the site,” Lele said. “What attracted me to Marriott was its family values and the honor of having (the founder’s) name on the hotel.”

Tampa Bay Times, April 10 2017

The Balance of Success on Clearwater Beach

Balance of Success

About 15 years ago the city wrote policy designed to lure hotels and luxury resorts to the beach that was heavy with aging buildings and in need of an economic boost.

Clearwater is approaching a significant milestone in the beach’s history as a hotel density reserve created in 2008 has nearly run dry.

With intense redevelopment now accomplished, the next step should be better ways to handle the parking and traffic congestion that has followed, according to planning and development director Michael Delk.

“We’re at a point where we have to look at our transportation options,” Delk said.

Beach by Design required new hotels to provide parking for guests, but the city still struggles with accommodating the thousands of day-trippers who drive to the beach.

One parking solution in the works for nearly 15 years is the seven-story garage that broke ground last month on the north end’s Poinsettia Avenue. The structure is three stories higher than originally planned and will sit directly across from Day’s East Shore Resort, looming over bungalow homes and single-story structures.

William Selvidge, who retired to Clearwater Beach in 2010, sees the high rises and luxury resorts as benefits because development put everything within reach and created a walkable community.

For his move to Florida, Selvidge bought a convertible that has only 7,500 miles on it five years later. His only concern is congestion from what seems like a new development every day.

Buildings near the residential area are also getting bigger. Last month, the Community Development Board approved a complex of 22 three-bedroom units on a half-acre Avalon Street lot that was originally called Avalon Condos.

Beach By Design restricts condominiums in the district to 65 feet tall, but developers pitched the Avalon project instead as “resort attached dwellings,” a title that allows them to be used as residences or hotel rooms.

Promising the CDB they would reserve at least one unit at all times for a short-term rental, developers were granted the maximum height given to hotels of 75 feet.

Another north end project recently approved by the CDB is Somerset Vacation Townhomes, which will include 20 hotel rooms and a rooftop bar.

Charles Siemon, hired by the city from 1999 to 2001 to write Beach by Design, said redevelopment has been a balancing act of luring investment while maintaining quality of life for day trippers and residents.

But now that luxury hotels, restaurants, shopping and condos line the shore, Siemon said it may be time to re-evaluate whether the infrastructure has kept up.

“Success breeds success,” Siemon said. “The focus then was on getting something started. Now apparently there’s some perspective that they need to slow down.”

Siemon said Beach By Design called for parking strategies like city-run ferries, trolleys and shuttles to discourage cars on the island, but those alternatives have not materialized like he’d hoped.

To alleviate congestion, Siemon said the city could require more room between buildings, but limiting development once you’ve asked for it is tricky.

“You work like crazy to get people to invest, and when they do invest you tell them to slow down, so it’s not easy,” he said. “I think they should be going through the process of taking time to quickly analyze what’s good and what’s the bad and what’s the ugly. Fix the ugly. Promote the good and try to make it all work.”

TampaBay.com November 2015

Construction Spending at Seven-year High – US

Construction spending hit $1.1 trillion in September, its highest level since March 2008.

That’s according to an analysis by Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), which pointed out the number would have been even higher if it weren’t for a shortage of construction workers.

“Overall, demand for construction continues to grow at a very robust rate,” said AGC Chief Economist Ken Simonson. “It appears, however, that many firms performing private nonresidential work could not find enough qualified workers in September to keep pace with growing demand.”

There were only 479,000 unemployed construction workers in September, the smallest total for that month in 15 years, Simonson noted.

Construction spending has increased every month this year, and the latest gain suggested the economy remained on firmer ground despite some slowing in consumer spending and persistent weakness in manufacturing.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast construction spending rising 0.5 percent in September. Construction outlays were up 14.1 percent compared to September of last year.

September’s increase is slightly above the gain the government had estimated in its advance third-quarter gross domestic product estimate published last week.

A recent AGC survey found that 86 percent of construction firms say they’re having a hard time finding qualified workers to fill vacant positions.

Both private sector and public sector construction spending continued to grow, with outlays in the larger private sector 16.0 percent above a year ago, and public construction spending 9.4 percent higher.

The fresh data suggested that the housing sector specifically remains healthy despite some recent data suggesting a slowdown.

Private spending on housing construction, the largest component of all construction spending, picked up 1.8 percent in the month and gained 17.2 percent year on year.

Eventually that could turn into higher supplies of new homes, to ease the current tight market that has pushed prices high enough to deter buyers, according to industry specialists.