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Suncoast Pinellas News

Dunedin Hotel Project Over Early Hurdle

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By Mark  Schantz | The Suncoast News

Published: October 6, 2007

DUNEDIN, Fla. - DUNEDIN, Fla. - The dream of a developer to construct a hotel in downtown Dunedin moved a lot closer to becoming a reality at Thursday night's City Commission meeting.

City commissioners unanimously granted a preliminary site plan approval for a three-story, 36-unit, French colonial-style hotel that would offer 9,400 square feet of retail space as well.

The hotel complex at 362 Scotland St. at Douglas Avenue, would have a swimming pool. Each hotel unit would have two bedrooms and be about 600 square feet in size.

The project is close to the Dunedin Historical Society and Museum, near where the Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail crosses Douglas Avenue.

The scale of the project had to be reduced from a proposed 50-room hotel after the developer discovered survey plans submitted by a previous owner listed incorrect acreage. The site is smaller than the hotel developer initially thought and can't accommodate a 50-room hotel under the city's land-use regulations.

The initial size estimate had not taken into account portions of the site the previous owner had deeded to the city for street widening.

Michael Boutzoukas, the Clearwater attorney representing developer Dunedin Station Square LLC, said coming before the commission for preliminary site plan approval meant the project "is off the on ramp and on the highway moving forward."

City Manager Robert DiSpirito said a hotel, in the middle of the downtown retailing and entertainment district, would assist in the area's redevelopment by introducing valuable transient accommodations integrated into a single building with significant ground floor retail space.

The hotel complex will attract pedestrian traffic from Main Street and Douglas Avenue, as well as bicycle traffic from the Pinellas Trail, all which are nearby, he said.

Commissioners Deborah Kynes and Julie Ward Bujalski said at final site plan approval they would like renderings showing how the hotel would look compared to nearby buildings.

No date has yet been set for the final-approval hearing.

Kynes said she liked the project's architecture and wrought-iron trimmings, but wants to be able to judge its mass, bulk and scale compared to existing structures in the vicinity.

Mayor Bob Hackworth, however, said it would be unfair to compare the design esthetics of the proposed hotel complex to those of adjacent buildings. Those structures may have outlived their usefulness and could be destined to be razed someday, he said.

The project has come a long way from earlier this year when all there was on the property was a cinderblock shell. The unfinished structure was the remnant of a previous owners attempt to develop the property.

The cinderblock structure was demolished and a house that was once used by the local railroad stationmaster was relocated from the site to make way for the hotel complex.

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