Art Ovation hotel plans eight-room expansion

Art Ovation hotel in downtown Sarasota is looking to expand. 

The hotel at 1255 N. Palm Avenue has submitted an application for administrative site plan approval to build above existing space at the northwest corner with plans to add eight guest rooms, a 450-square-foot office space and a covered area with finishing kitchen on the roof.

The rooftop covered area is intended to address complaints of heat in and around the pool deck and outdoor bar.

Attorney Steve Rees Jr. of law firm Icard Merrill and other hotel representatives were before the city’s Development Review Committee on Tuesday as much of the discussion with department representatives focused on minor details. 

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Among the largest issues needing to be resolved was the discovered absence of a recycling plan from when the hotel was built in 2018, as noted by General Manager of Public Services Todd Kucharski.

“Even though you're just adding an addition, I could not locate any recycling plan that was prepared for this project when it was opened,” Kucharski said. “How are you handling the recycling? When I was on-site I noticed cardboard being put into the dumpster for refuse and that's a recycled material.”

Kucharski said he also noticed items in the solid waste area that should not be, such as palettes, all requiring a solid waste plan for the existing hotel, much less the addition, to include documentation for any impact the addition will have on the hotel’s refuse and solid waste collection capacity.

The DRC will also require an additional traffic study because one conducted in February included only additional trip generation from the eight new rooms, but not the commercial space.

Although hotel representatives requested a partial sign-off, the outstanding issues will require a resubmittal and at least one more appearance before the DRC before administrative approval can be considered. 

One Park West

The final project to be built within The Quay did receive partial DRC sign-off on Tuesday. Planned for Block 9, One Park West will be an 18-story, 69-unit condominium tower with 4,406 square feet of commercial on the ground floor. Its sister building, One Park on Block 1 at the corner of Boulevard of the Arts and Quay Commons, received Planning Board Approval on June 12.  

One Park West was pared from its originally planned 75 units, which will be offered at a lower price point than other condo towers in The Quay, starting in the low $1 million range and topping out at about $3 million. By comparison, One Park pricing starts at $3 million-plus to $12.5 million for the highest priced penthouse. 

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Both towers are being developed by Property Markets Group of Miami and Sarasota-based MoneyShow.

Designed by Sarasota-based firm Hoyt Architects, One Park West will feature one-, two- and three-bedroom residences as well as a penthouse collection with sizes ranging from 1,033 to 2,250 square feet. 

Once some minor details on site plan drawings and language in the narrative are cleaned up, One Park West can expect full sign-off from the DRC. Property Markets Group Managing Partner Dan Kaplan previously told the Observer the developer hopes for a late summer hearing before the Planning Board, which has approval authority for all projects in The Quay.

Meanwhile, construction of One Park is expected to begin in September or October and, once approved, One Park West shortly thereafter.