Hotel could be headed to north Manatee County

A new hotel could be coming to north Manatee County.

While the brand of the hotel is unknown, the proposal for the 118-room hotel along with nearly 139,000 square feet of commercial/retail shopping center in the Parrish area could secure its first necessary approval this week. The Imperial Lakes Commercial project, which would be located south of Buffalo Road and east of Interstate 75, goes before the Manatee County Planning Commission on Thursday.

“It’s an interchange location at 75 and Moccasin Wallow Road, the first entrance coming into Manatee County, so it is an interchange that would support a normal interchange hotel,” said Caleb Grimes, who represents the applicant. “They do not have a hotel user yet. The site just calls for one in their mind.”

The applicants are Imperial Lakes Golf Club Homesites Inc./GCI Parcel B LLC/Imperial Renaissance LLC, who are the property owners, and Primerica Group, which is the contract purchaser, according to county documents.

Hotel rooms already have been approved for this area. As part of the Robinson Gateway project, which the county commission approved in April 2015, there were 350 hotel rooms planned as part of the 288-acre multi-use development east of I-75 on the north side of Moccasin Wallow Road and on the west side of Carter Road.

The request before the county for Imperial Lakes Commercial is approval of a preliminary site plan, which includes a total of approximately 201,000 square feet on approximately 33.12 acres. The applicant is also proposing roadway improvements along Buffalo Road, according to Grimes.

“They are going to relocate Buffalo Road so that it swings south into their site and you have a stacking area, a recovery area, before you make sharp turns,” he said.

Should the project receive final approval from the county commission on Feb. 2, there is no estimated opening date but they want to move forward as soon as they can, Grimes said.

“It’s easy access to St. Pete, easy access to Tampa, easy access to all the events in Sarasota and Manatee counties,” he said. “There is a lot of development in the area that could use some services and retail and a lot more planned on the book. It’s time.”

With respect to the remaining commercial/retail in the project, the applicants are “talking to some users that they prefer to not discuss at this time,” Grimes said.

“They expect that part of the commercial to go fairly fast,” he said.

This story was originally published January 9, 2017 at 5:08 PM with the headline "Hotel could be headed to north Manatee County."