Wednesday, May 16, 2007

 
Today's Sarasota Herald announced "Sarasota could be a 'WALDORF' city".
Now if you ever had any doubts about the potential for this area's explosive growth in the near future...read this article! We all know what the addition of the Ritz-Carlton did for Sarasota's world wide image. Now imagine what the combination of this project (Lion's Gate) and the old Quay BILLION dollar development across US 41 from each other will do for this city!

Both mammoth projects will be marketed internationally with enormous focus on our city throughout the world.

please read on...

Article published May 16, 2007


SARASOTA -- Hilton Hotels Corp. has signed a tentative agreement to bring the Waldorf-Astoria brand to Sarasota -- part of a push to expand the famed New York hotel flag nationwide.If Waldorf-Astoria does eventually anchor Lion's Gate Development Group Inc.'s planned Proscenium project, designed for a six-acre tract on U.S. Highway 41 near downtown, it would be the latest evidence that the nation's premier brands, retailers and investors remain focused on Southwest Florida."Hilton is rolling the concept out," said Lion's Gate president Gary Moyer about the Waldorf-Astoria Collection hotel line, "and they're looking for gateway cities to enter."Within the past year, upscale department store Nordstrom Inc. and massive equity fund Blackstone Group Inc. have made major investments in the region. The companies hope to capitalize on the area's existing wealth, along with the increased mobility and spending power of the estimated 78 million baby boomers who will retire with unprecedented inherited fortunes.Hotel chains like Waldorf-Astoria, Westin and others are eyeing Sunbelt and Southern resort cities as attractive destinations for international travelers able to take advantage of favorable monetary exchange rates."Names like Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis and Waldorf-Astoria are synonymous with great places and great cities, and Waldorf-Astoria would be a good fit," said Kevin Daves, co-owner of the 266-room Ritz-Carlton Hotel, the resort that ushered in the current wave of upscale brand interest locally when it opened in 2001."If you develop a checklist of things people want, with our weather, arts, cultural, beaches, Sarasota has just about everything," Daves added. "For a lot of brands, being here is more a question of why not than why."The Proscenium Waldorf-Astoria, a Hilton brand that for decades has been linked exclusively to a 47-story, five-star hotel in midtown Manhattan, is being designed to contain 225 rooms and 35,000 square feet of meeting space.Lion's Gate also intends to buy the Coquina on the Beach Resort, on Lido Key, and develop a 57-room hotel with amenities such as a cafe and swimming pool. It also would be operated by Waldorf-Astoria."This says there are serious commitments for, and to, Sarasota, and it dovetails with the larger trends of things going upscale in the U.S. travel market," said Virginia Haley, president of the Sarasota Convention & Visitors Bureau."Waldorf-Astoria would give us the three major brands in the entire industry right here: Hyatt, Ritz-Carlton/Marriott, and Hilton," Haley added.A Waldorf-Astoria official, citing Hilton policy, declined to confirm the chain's involvement with Proscenium."Sarasota is definitely a market that is desirable for customers" of the Waldorf-Astoria level, said Jeanne Datz Rice, a Waldorf-Astoria spokeswoman. "We'd love to see it go through."Lion's Gate and architect Perkins Eastman, of New York, plan to augment the five-star hotel, which will be housed in an 18-story building on U.S. 41 from Fourth Street to Boulevard of the Arts, with 360,000 square feet of office and retail space and an 800-seat performing arts center.Unlike several planned real estate projects, Proscenium will not be reliant on, or dominated by, residences. Only 175 are planned, including 50 that will be managed by Waldorf-Astoria.If the planned luxury hotel reaches fruition, it would become one of only eight Waldorf-Astoria hotels worldwide, joining New York; Phoenix; La Quinta, Calif.; Maui, Hawaii; and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.Another pair of Waldorf-Astoria hotels are under construction in Beverly Hills, Calif., and Bonnet Creek, near Orlando.Both will open in late 2009. Lion's Gate hopes to complete the Proscenium project in late 2010.The original Waldorf-Astoria debuted in 1893 and opened in its current site 38 years later.The 1,245-room hotel, owned by Hilton since 1949, remains one of the world's most posh and is among the most recognizable names in the world.More locally, Lion's Gate intends to hold a design workshop with Sarasota city planners later this month to tackle what are expected to be traffic and other issues.Moyer said the development team will be "proactive" regarding traffic and parking."Our project will be a modern interpretation of the classic," said Karen Cook, Moyer's wife and a Lion's Gate vice president.

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