City pushes for final details on new parking garage

With a development agreement for a new downtown Bradenton hotel expected to be finalized within a week or two, city officials are feeling the pressure to complete plans for a proposed new parking garage.

The city entered into a $650,000 purchase agreement in January with Pittsburgh-based North Star Lodging to build a $17 million, 120-suite, nine-story hotel on the site of the old Manatee Players theater across from city hall.

The proposal also calls for a 3,000-square-foot restaurant, pool and outside tiki bar. In order to make the deal work, the city agreed to give up 100 parking spaces, which sparked discussions on the need for a new garage.

The city is preparing a request for proposal to begin designing the new garage, which would include room for retail businesses.

“We have decisions to make,” City Administrator Carl Callahan said during a council meeting Wednesday. “We still have a little time, but there is a good chance we’ll see a development agreement coming forward as early as next Wednesday. The purchasing department needs some decisions as far as the number of spaces to determine the number of levels.”

The number of spaces preferred is 400, with 100 set aside for the hotel. Cost estimates are not known until the design RFP is released.

The kind of retail component that will be built into the garage is the biggest question left for the council to decide. Discussions have focused on possibilities for a restaurant.

“We have items coming forward that are interesting, and we’ll definitely want to take a closer look at,” said Mayor Wayne Poston. “We’ve seen some examples of how it can work, but it’s tough to advertise what kind of retail because retailers don’t work that way. They want to the see the space first.”

Callahan said that’s why the design phase is so important.

“This is going to progress fast and we want to get the RFP out there,” he said. “We want the design to be really cool and different, but keep in line with Old Main Street.”

This story was originally published October 5, 2016 at 2:29 PM with the headline "City pushes for final details on new parking garage."