Southwest Florida Attracts New Hotel Product

Hotel development is alive and well in Collier and Lee Counties, some 100 miles west of Miami, with more new product targeting the so-called destination tourism market. A total 1,401 new hotel rooms valued at an estimated hard construction cost of $106 million is either planned or under way about 100 miles west of Miami.

Builders are so bullish on the South Florida west coast’s potential for attracting longer-stay visitors that projects are now going up or being or planned away from the previous centers of activity in Naples and along the Gulf of Mexico.

For example, the 450-room room Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort in Bonita Springs, southern Lee County, under construction for scheduled delivery in fall 2001, will include an 18,000-sf health spa, four outdoor swimming pools and three restaurants

Also in Lee County, a 450-room resort-type hotel project is reportedly being planned by Miromar Developments a half-mile south of Alico Road on the east side of Ben Hill Griffin Parkway. Another resort-type hotel with 400 rooms is being blueprinted by Southwest Florida Capital Corp. on a parcel south of Alico Road along Three Oaks Parkway.

More modest hotel development is the just-opened 101-room Doubletree Guest Suites at 12200 Tamiami Trail in Naples. The project is set on four acres of peninsula overlooking the Cocohatchee River and Wildlife Preserve. The three-story facility includes 2,000 sf of meeting space and a restaurant/lounge.