New Holmes Beach resort hotel finally ready to break ground

AMI hotel

finally ready

to build

HOLMES BEACH -- A new resort and boutique hotel to be built in downtown Holmes Beach is breaking ground this month, seven months behind schedule.

On Oct. 15, hotelier Mainsail Lodging & Development will officially kick off construction of the $20 million, 37-suite Waterline Marina Resort & Beach Club. The latest in a chain of food-oriented hotel developments, Waterline will be built at 5325 Marina Drive, the site of the former Pete Reynard's Yacht Club Restaurant.

Waterline will be Anna Maria Island's only full-service hotel, according to the development company. It will feature two-bedroom suites with gourmet kitchens, a 50-slip marina, restaurant, and a resort-style swimming pool with sun deck and separate beach club. It also will feature a restaurant. The hotel could open as early as fall 2016. Rooms are expected to rent for well over $200 nightly.

Joe Collier, Mainsail's president, said changes made to some of the drawings for the hotel submitted for permitting delayed the start of construction.

Mainsail already owns the Mainsail Beach Inn on Anna Maria. Away from Manatee County, the company's best known local property is the Epicurean hotel in Tampa's Hyde Park.

The groundbreaking is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. The ceremony will include comment from Mainsail Lodging & Development President Joe Collier, Holmes Beach Mayor Bob Johnson and restaurateur Ed Chiles. Chiles is a limited partner in Waterline.

Gas prices inching up in Bradenton-Sarasota area

MANATEE -- Average retail gasoline prices in the Bradenton-Sarasota area have risen 0.8 cent per gallon in the past week, averaging $2.07 a gallon this weekend, according to GasBuddy's daily survey of 308 area gas outlets. This compares with the national average that has increased 0.5 cents per gallon in the last week to $2.29 a gallon, according to gasoline price website GasBuddy.com.

Prices Sunday were 123.4 cents per gallon lower than the same day one year ago and are 15.8 cents per gallon lower than a month ago. The national average has decreased 11.4 cents per gallon during the last month and stands 99.5 cents per gallon lower than this day one year ago.

"Few people on the eastern seaboard are concerned with gasoline prices today knowing that while the major impact of Hurricane Joaquin may be behind us, the Carolinas anticipate still more rain today exacerbating what has already been catastrophic flooding," said Gregg Laskoski, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.

Nationally, the price of gasoline inched up an average of about a cent during the past week, but prices leveled off during the weekend. The national average price of $2.29 is the cheapest for this day since 2004, according to AAA.

Westfield Southgate offers shredding for documents

SARASOTA -- Bring no more than four boxes or two trash cans full of confidential materials to Sarasota's Westfield Southgate mall at 3501 S. Tamiami Trail and get them shredded for free. The mall, in conjunction with Yarnall Records Management, will host the event from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday.

This story was originally published October 5, 2015 at 6:29 PM with the headline "New Holmes Beach resort hotel finally ready to break ground ."