Hyatt Regency redevelopment wins critical Planning Board adjustment

Plans to redevelop the Hyatt Regency hotel property adjacent to The Quay received a critical Planning Board adjustment approval last week, allowing developer Kolter Urban to move forward with finalizing its site plans.

Although the project requires only administrative approval, an adjustment to relocate the existing primary entrance off Boulevard of the Arts and utilize a U-turn movement to access it received 4-1 approval from the Planning Board at its Dec. 11 meeting. 

Representing Kolter Urban, Attorney Brenda Patten reminded Planning Board members their only consideration may be the lone adjustment request and not the site plan itself. 

“I just want to remind you that this hearing is only a simple request. It is only for an adjustment to move the location of that primary access point,” Patten said. 

That didn’t dissuade members from bringing up the site plan, and the fact they had no detailed plan to view while determining whether Kolter’s request is necessary, nor whether the U-turn movement from westbound Boulevard of the Arts to eastbound is a better option than adding a curb cut provide for a dedicated left-turn access.

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Patten said that isn’t the Planning Board’s purview as well, and that the developer has extensively engaged staff in discussions about how the driveway synchronizes with Boulevard of the Arts as it currently exists and how it is envisioned as a complete streets concept.

“Everything going on in the public right of way is a city issue,” Patten said. “It’s not for the applicant to decide. It's not for the Planning Board to decide. We have no control over the landscaping or the configuration of what's happening within the Boulevard of the Arts.”

Nor up to the Planning Board is an existing alley between the proposed project and Block 9 in The Quay, where developer Property Markets Group plans to build the One Park West condo tower. Attorney Tyler Stall told the Planning Board the Hyatt redevelopment’s eastern tower, designed to overhang the public right of way alley at 15 feet above the ground, encroaches on One Park’s rights.

“Everything 15 feet and above belongs to Kolter,” Patten said. “They can build their building over that part of the easement because they own the land. It's not subject to the easement.”

Kolter Urban is planning to replace the Hyatt and its adjacent parking structure with two towers that include a 166-room luxury hotel and 224 condominiums plus 4,700 square feet of street level retail. The hotel, which will also have a 7,000-square-foot ballroom, some 3,000 square feet smaller than the Hyatt’s event space, will be a Hyatt-branded Thompson Hotel.

Although the building the towers will be in phases, both buildings will use a common motor court entrance, necessitating the relocation of the current curb cut to the east. The plan will also reduce from three to one the number of access points to the property, increasing safety by reducing conflict points between pedestrian and vehicles. A current access point to the west, shared with the neighboring Beau Ceil condominiums, will be renovated and dedicated to those residents.

Planning Board members grilled staff and developer representatives on whether the U-turn movement will bring congestion to Boulevard of the Arts, particularly as it impacts Beau Ceil and other condominium towers along Sarasota Bay. 

“Approximately 100 additional trips per peak hour,” said engineering consultant Jason Collins said of the combined hotel, residential and commercial uses. And as an existing hotel, “Realize that this site has significant vested trips," he added.

The board twice heard from Collins the access scenario isn’t “ideal” but it was the best compromise to meet the needs of Kolter to exercise its right to redevelop the property. That wasn’t enough to convince Daniel Clermont, who was the lone dissenting vote for the adjustment.

“Twice they said the U-turn is not ideal. Being so near to the crosswalk is not ideal. To me it seems not ideal, and in general, I'm not in love with the project because of what it does to The Quay,” Clermont said. “It seems odd to me that we would have a building as impactful as this using a U-turn.”

As for board members' concerns about not having a site plan before them to help them through the decision process, Patten said all protocols were followed and it made no sense to draw a complete site plan before seeking the adjustment and risking a rejection — and for that reason by code is not required.

“If you don't like the process, you need to change the code, but don't penalize the applicant that comes forward based on what the code permits,” she said.