Like many Florida locales still struggling with a tough economy, Central West Florida has seen hotel development slow to a degree, though there has been steady growth.
In Tampa, the Westin Tampa Bay at Rocky Point, with 255 rooms and 7,500 square feet of meeting space, was the new kid on the block for a while. But it will be joined this year by the Hotel Floridan in downtown Tampa, an 80-year-old gem—and considered the city’s first skyscraper—built around the same time as the historic Tampa Theatre. Once under a condemnation order, the Floridan was reprieved and is undergoing a complete renovation, which will preserve as many original details as possible and re-create others, including intricate wrought iron railings and chandeliers.
Meanwhile, St. Petersburg/Clearwater recently welcomed the Hyatt Regency Clearwater Beach Resort and Spa, a stroll away from both the ocean and the new $30 million Beach Walk, a half-mile pathway leading to shopping, dining and entertainment. The new resort also features 250 suites and 12,000 square feet of function space, including a rooftop terrace and an eighth-floor pool deck.
Groups visiting St. Petersburg/Clearwater this year and next, though, might notice a certain motif popping up at some of the hotels—a dolphin motif. That’s because filming wrapped in December for Dolphin Tale, a new movie due in fall 2011, based on the life of Winter, an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin who was found tangled up in a crab trap near Cape Canaveral when she was only three months old. Her tail was destroyed and she wasn’t expected to survive, but today Winter is completely healthy and living at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. A prosthetic tail helps her swim like a regular dolphin.
"It’s great, because it’s about this real dolphin and people will want to come see her," says D.T. Minich, executive director of Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater.
Starring Ashley Judd, Harry Connick, Jr., Morgan Freeman and Kris Kristofferson, the movie was filmed at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium and other area locations.
In Sarasota, a new Hampton Inn by the Sarasota/Bradenton Airport debuted last year, set less than a mile from the Ringling Museum and offering 108 guest rooms plus two meeting rooms—a boardroom and the Sarasota-Manatee room—totaling 2,000 square feet. For added convenience and to keep your group on schedule, a real-time flight arrivals and departures monitor is set up in the lobby—identical to those at the airport—while complimentary airport shuttle service also is available.
Also in Greater Sarasota, Longboat Key Club & Resort has a $400 million redevelopment plan on the drawing board, calling for the addition of a new green-certified hotel, a new wellness center, a new meeting center with 17,000 square feet of space and a host of other improvements.
