InterContinental, Wesley Start Sarasota Indigo Hotel

The hotel is scheduled to open in early 2006 with average daily room rates at $100, about the same price point as the 140-room Atlanta Hotel Indigo and the 100-room Chicago Hotel Indigo scheduled to open in March.

InterContinental officials declined to disclose the Sarasota hotel's development or hard construction cost. But area construction industry sources tell GlobeSt.com the hotel can't be built for less than $80,000 per room or a total $8 million. Thirty of the 95 rooms will be parlor suites.

Jim Anhut, IHG's senior vice president of brand development, says the Sarasota property at US 41 and Sixth Street, also known as the Boulevard of the Arts, is being built "for travelers seeking an experience, as well as a destination." Anhut says Sarasota "will provide a sophisticated backdrop for this lifestyle hotel."

Anhut says Sarasota was selected for IHG's second Indigo-brand hotel for several reasons, including positioning, location and customer profile. "The Indigo customer is prevalent there--middle market male and female consumers who are trading up to aspirational levels of quality and taste," Anhut says. Hotel Indigo customers are "defined more by psychographic than demographic, and more by purchasing habits than by income. These consumers tend to be value shoppers and décor enthusiasts who seek experience over utilitarian functionality and the one-size-fits-all approach."

The IHG executive says Indigo "will be the only upper-mid market hotel in Downtown Sarasota which will cater to guests who are trading up to higher levels of quality and taste from the more standard and mid-market product, but are still seeking value for their travel expenditures."