Harbour Island residents line up to put down hotel proposal

TAMPA, Fla. - The developer who proposed a 12-story hotel on downtown Tampa's Harbour Island has been denied after Thursday's city council meeting. 

Residents of the neighborhood said the development would make traffic worse than it already is, plus bring a host of safety issues and ruin the serene community feel. 

Tampa City Council agreed. 

The 12-story, 150-room AC Marriott Hotel would have gone at the corner of Harbour Island Boulevard and Knights Run Avenue, adjacent to the west residential gates. 

An attorney for the developer, Liberty Group, called it an "upscale lifestyle hotel" that would replace an "obsolete bank building."

After initial community input, developers adjusted plans to reduce the buildings height and the number of rooms, plus adding a dedicated ride share pickup and drop off area, completely redesigned aesthetics, and retaining existing Harbour Island signage.

Proposed hotel on Harbour Island

"We are very dedicated, me and my design team, to design an iconic, elegant, sustainable building," said Mickey Jacob, VP of Architecture with Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood.

But the group of opposed Harbour Island neighbors was not swayed. They showed up in force, urging city council to keep all hotels north of Knights Run Avenue and the quiet, southern half of the island. They say a hotel in that spot will bring more traffic in an already congested area, ruin the entrance view of the gates, and simply won't fit.

"It's an oversized traffic-inducing, unimaginative eyesore that could possibly look great elsewhere, but not Harbour Island," said Bea Bare.

"If this hotel goes up, it will spit into the collective face and everything we've built here," said Sam Hallenbeck.

"They are concerned about how this massive scale is going to impact the residential uses, they are concerned about traffic, they are concerned about how this is going to affect their kids getting on the bus," said a representative of Harbour Island South Neighborhood Association.

But there were a few at the meeting touting the benefits of a hotel in that area.

"Economically, for the support of our Convention Center, another hotel is needed, '' said Santiago Corrada, President and CEO of Visit Tampa Bay. "And unfortunately, it's within the vicinity of the Convention Center."

"This project is a perfect example of how a hotel can fill a business need, create jobs, and also fit into the surrounding areas," said Ben Dachepalli.

Council member Lynn Hurtak said she was inclined to approve since the proposed hotel is outside the gates, in a public space. Council member Charlie Miranda argued that if it were situated north of Knights Run with the other buildings, he'd have no issue. But he worried that allowing this rezone could start a domino effect. 

The City Planning Commission did find the proposed hotel compatible with Harbour Island's plan as a high intensity mixed use development." Ultimately, council voted 4-2 against the rezone, with Bill Carlson absent.