Colson Hotel fate remains uncertain amid demolition bid

Although standing vacant and boarded up for years, the former Colson Hotel in the Rosemary District has become the center of controversy over whether it may be razed to make way for residential development.

At 1428 Eighth St., the Colson was built in in 1925 by Owen Burns as the first hotel in Sarasota, and one of the few in Florida, where African Americans could find lodging in the Jim Crow era. That stands as the historical significance of the building and why the city’s Historic Preservation Board on April 9 unanimously voted to deny the demolition request by JDMAX Developments. 

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The Planning Department also recommended to the City Commission that it deny the demolition request.

Appealing the denial, the matter came before the City Commission by JDMAX on Sept. 3, but with a caveat developed in collaboration with DreamLarge, which is leading the effort to save the building while still accommodating the planned surrounding the development.

DreamLarge is a public benefit corporation, which are businesses that focus on charitable causes and the betterment of society or the environment.

Maximilian Vollmer of JDMAX told commissioners every effort was made to repurpose the Colson within its development, but studies on engineering and restoration costs rendered it unfeasible. The structure is too large and unstable to be moved, and too costly to be restored. So, unless the city can allow some functional adjustments and transfer of development rights for more height and density to develop on the vacant land, JDMAX will continue to place the demolition decision at the feet of the City Commission.

“There is no exemplary architecture or nothing to salvage within the building itself, and the only significance of the building, obviously, is its history, which is significant but it cannot really be repurposed to that use,” Vollmer said. “A historic marker could preserve the history if you would decide to demolish the building. If the demolition gets approved, we will be willing to look into various ways to mitigate that loss.”

Vollmer produced two bids to restore the structure, which were $1.96 million and $2.25 million, and said other contractors declined to bid because of the complexity of the project. 

A structural analysis by engineering Bliss & Nyitray of Tampa determined:

• Structure has degraded excessively and is beyond the possibility of repair
• To renovate building, all interior framing would need to be removed, leaving only the exterior walls.
• Exterior walls would need to be braced to replace interior framing.
• All exterior masonry needs to be strengthened.
• Foundation needs to be enlarged.
• Building is unfit for renovation and should be demolished.
• Building is currently unsafe and not suitable for occupancy.

Possible renovation would be an economic burden and beyond reasonable assumption.

Photo by Andrew Warfield

As an alternative, the developer is willing to sell the building to a group led by DreamLarge — the negotiated price is $700,000 — with the intent to ultimately convey the Colson to Black ownership for a repurposed use, perhaps a jazz club or museum.

Prior to receiving its unfavorable cost-benefit analysis, JDMAX had initially planned to renovate the building for an alternative use such as retail, office or residential. Adjacent to the Colson it had planned 27 three-story townhomes as a companion to another project it is currently planning on Ninth Street, priced as alternatives to the premium downtown condominium costs. 

If it can transfer ownership of the Colson to DreamLarge, the development may more closely resemble height and density allowances of the Rosemary Residential Overlay District, which allows up to 100 units per acre and seven stories. Even without the overlay, the property is zoned Downtown Edge, which allows for 25 units per acre and five-story buildings.

The site stands across Cohen Way from the Sarasota Housing Authority’s Lofts on Lemon.

Dreaming large

Since the Historic Preservation Board’s demolition denial, DreamLarge CEO Anand Pallegar has assembled a group of stakeholders in an effort to preserve The Colson while allowing JDMAX to achieve its objective of bringing more workforce housing to the neighborhood.

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Rather than standing in opposition to JDMAX before the commission, Pallegar presented alongside JDMAX, advocating for the adjustments needed to make the project work and save the building.

“What's happened through this process is that a group of stakeholders have come together and various different organizations — Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation, Sarasota African-American Cultural Coalition, Gulf Coast Community Foundation and ourselves — to try to figure out a way to do this,” Pallegar said. “We think there is a way that we can restore the Colson into something that would be remarkable for the community if we could find a way to get the site.”

That requires staff signing off, or the commission eventually approving, adjustments sought by JDMAX. Otherwise, the developer will resurrect its request to demolish the building when the public hearing is eventually continued. The commissions voted unanimously to keep the hearing open while JDMAX works with city staff on securing the requested adjustments to the site plan.

Approval of demolition will require the commission determining whether JDMAX has made all reasonable efforts to save the building, and whether the costs associated with requiring the building to be preserved are not reasonable.

Meanwhile, Vollmer said, time is money.

“We can expedite a review of this in terms of meeting with them, making sure we understand what their new plans are, and then sharing with them what the process needs,” City Manager Marlon Brown told commissioners. “We will do everything in our in our ability to get this moving forward as quickly as possible.”

Commissioner Kyle Battie lamented that the Colson was permitted to languish for so long, rather than the community being proactive, that demolition rather than preservation even became an option.

“We're going through this with a number of historic structures in the city, and I’d like to see the community jump on these things initially before developers come in and start wanting to demo them,” Battie said.