Colson Hotel purchase ensures preservation of Black history landmark


A view of the courtyard area of the Colson Hotel from the adjacent property where developer JDMax plans to build an infill residential development.
A view of the courtyard area of the Colson Hotel from the adjacent property where developer JDMax plans to build an infill residential development.
Photo by Andrew Warfield
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Today it doesn’t look like much, but for decades the Colson Hotel building at 1425 Eighth St. meant everything to the African American community as the only lodging in Sarasota where Black people were welcomed. 

In an effort to restore its place in the city’s history, a coalition of organizations led by DreamLarge, a Sarasota-based registered benefit corporation, has acquired the building from a developer, saving it from likely demolition.

Led by DreamLarge founder Anand Pallegar, the coalition comprised of Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation and the Gulf Coast Community Foundation — through a newly formed community development corporation (CDC) — raised the $700,000 needed to purchase the Colson Hotel from developer JDMax, which retained land next to the hotel to be developed into residences.

Anand Pallegar is leading the effort to preserve the Colson Hotel building.
Photo by Andrew Warfield

It was the culmination of a year-plus-long negotiation process that required the assistance of the Sarasota City Commission and city staff to grant adjustments needed to accommodate the residential development, which has yet to be submitted.

For Pallegar, the Colson Hotel represented another opportunity to preserve a piece of history in the Rosemary District. Moving here two decades ago from Detroit, he settled into the district, opening his business in 2006. It was the diversity of the neighborhood that drew him there.

“I was always attracted to the Rosemary District,” he said. “Our first office was here in the Rosemary District, and it was because of the grit that existed in this neighborhood. It had this broad socio-economic spread from homelessness and Section 8 housing to multi-million dollar condos that came a bit later, and it felt like real urban city.”

DreamLarge is now located in the historic Churchwalls building at 513 Central Ave., just a few blocks south of the Colson Hotel site, which stands across Cohen Way from Sarasota Housing Authority’s Lofts on Lemon. 

Evidence of its former occupation by vagrants remains inside the building, which had been boarded up for more than a year by the developer.

The structure, though, is sound and remarkably precise in its construction and exterior features, Pallegar said. In addition to its historical significance, that made the building worth saving.

“There are buildings like this that only exist in this part of town, that are still standing, that have a patina to them and their history,” Pallegar said. “As we started to discover more and more about the history, it just became more appealing. It resonated with me, coming from Detroit, understanding Black history, understanding the craftsmanship going into some of these old structures, so we began trying to acquire them and collect them over time. It really became a preservation effort to try and salvage these buildings from the wrecking ball.”


Pause for a good cause

Originally known as the Colson Hotel for Negroes, prominent Sarasota developer Owen Burns constructed the building in 1925-26. It was one of the few hotels in Southwest Florida where African-Americans could lodge during the Jim Crow era. 

The hotel was named in honor of the Rev. Lewis Colson, a former slave who was instrumental in platting the city in its founding days. From 1899 to 1915, he served as the first minister of Bethlehem Baptist Church while fostering the growth of the Black community in Overtown, now the Rosemary District. His wife, Irene, was a midwife who provided critical support for Black families who were denied standard medical care.

Debris remains in what was a public room with a fireplace in the former Colson Hotel structure.
Photo by Andrew Warfield

“They were instrumental in that their fingerprints are in the founding principles of Sarasota,” Pallegar said of the Colsons. “The fact that they are the only Black people buried in the Rosemary Cemetery — the fact that this hotel sits literally a block from their grave — it's really an incredible story, and it's a story that not many people really understand. That's how Sarasota was built.”

JDMax owner Maximilian Vollmer, who is developing multiple infill residential projects in the Rosemary District, had applied for and was denied a demolition permit from the Sarasota Historic Preservation Board. 

During his appeal hearing before the Sarasota City Commission, Pallegar sat beside Vollmer before the dais, the two of them offering an option to demolition. To get there, though, would require the commissioners to instruct staff to work with all parties to permit a driveway for garbage collection off a primary street, among other zoning modifications.

Otherwise, Pallegar said, the hotel was likely doomed.

“Two paths were happening. The Sarasota Alliance was pursuing the preservation of the building. They'd written a series of documents. They worked with the Sarasota African-American Coalition to raise awareness, and they were a very loud and powerful voice,” Pallegar said.

The conceptual site plan shows the Colson Hotel building and adjacent property to be developed into residences.
Courtesy image

Meanwhile, the DreamLarge-led group was working to negotiate purchase of the Colson. At that Sept. 3 City Commission, Pallegar presented a conceptual site plan that incorporated a restored Colson alongside the new homes along with a plea to bend the code enough to allow the sale to occur. Otherwise, the commission would have either upheld the Historic Preservation Board's demolition denial — which likely would have led to litigation — or overturn that decision.

Instead, the commission tabled the vote, the pause providing time to secure the site adjustments with staff and for the two sides to reach a purchase agreement for the building.

“When you look at what the developer did, they had checked every single box to allow demolition,” Pallegar said. “If we didn't find a mutually viable deal, it was never going to be safe from the wrecking ball. What was remarkable was that the leadership of the city at the time and the staff all saw what had been put forth. Our team had put together a set of designs and visuals to try and imagine what it could be, and I think that their commitment to enabling a viable outcome is the only way this was saved.”


Preparing for resale

Work to empty the building of debris and to clean up the site surrounding the structure will soon begin in preparation for resale, the coalition not intending to earn a profit. Pallegar has his thoughts on what the repurposing of the Colson Hotel should be, but he leaves that to the decision of prospective investors. 

An aerial view of the Colson Hotel site.
Courtesy image

He does, though, have thoughts of what it should not be.

“I think whatever the end use is, it has to be something that is open, accessible and welcoming to all,” Pallegar said. “I think that is a foundational principle for whatever this building turns into. I think whatever it is that goes there has to be financially viable and operationally feasible for it to work. It cannot be something that constantly requires a handout. 

"This community doesn't need another nonprofit. What it needs is a viable, operational business that can succeed in that building and bring foot traffic and ultimately activate a part of the Rosemary District that has languished for a long time.”

 

author

Andrew Warfield

Andrew Warfield is the Sarasota Observer city reporter. He is a four-decade veteran of print media. A Florida native, he has spent most of his career in the Carolinas as a writer and editor, nearly a decade as co-founder and editor of a community newspaper in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

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