What’s in a name? Apparently everything for this new Palmetto hotel

The renaming of the Manatee Civic Center to “Bradenton Area Convention Center” in 2012 has long left a bad taste in the mouths of Palmetto officials and the thought of having “Bradenton” anywhere in the name of a proposed new convention hotel is adding salt to the wound.

The Palmetto City Commission was expected to take a final vote Monday on an agreement for at least one, and possibly two new hotels on 12.3 acres of vacant land near the convention center at One Haben Boulevard. Due to ongoing discussions regrading the final contract, including the proposed name, the vote was postponed to Jan. 7.

“If it has the name Bradenton in it, I don’t want nothing to do with it,” said Commissioner Brian Williams. “It’s wrong to do it to our citizens again. What they did to this community is wrong. If we don’t have to stay with this project then we don’t have to and I can do that with my vote.”

Commissioner Tambra Varnadore made a similar declaration Dec. 4 when the commission approved the first reading of the ordinance for the general development plan. Varnadore said she didn’t necessarily care if Palmetto was in the name, but she insisted any reference to Bradenton be removed from the contract.

Developer Tony DeRusso said he consulted with Sheraton’s new parent company Marriott International, lawyers and consultants to work out a solution. They decided on the name “Palmetto Sheraton at the Bradenton Area Convention Center.”

“We are very aware of the sensitivity and have known for months that we needed to come up with a name that will be successful for the hotel and the nature of the convention center,” DeRusso said. “Make no mistake, this will be a flagship hotel and Palmetto Sheraton will be highlighted. You can claim it as a city hotel, but it always needs a destination. The success of the hotel is reliant on the convention center and it needs that destination attached.”

Mayor Shirley Groover Bryant said it was time to put personal feelings aside when making business decisions that could be worth millions of dollars in property taxes to the city.

“I don’t think anybody has been more vocal about the distaste of the convention center being renamed,” Bryant said. “For all parties, the success of the hotel and convention center does need to be identified with the other for marketing purposes. Putting Palmetto first is the right thing to do and I hope the commissioners will reach a point of recognizing the value of that hotel, and at least us rising above where others have not.”

The hotel is planned to be eight stories with 251 rooms and a rooftop lounge and restaurant. The project includes the possibility of a second hotel with another 124 rooms and 7,500 square feet for restaurant or retail space, as well as 7,000 square feet of open space for events.

DeRusso’s team is looking to get the general development plan approved to attract investors for the $60 million project..

The project includes a covered walkway that would link the Sheraton hotel to the convention center, as well as an extension of Seventh Street West to Haben Boulevard.

The developer will pay about $6 million for those improvements, but those road improvements depend n Manatee County deeding some of the property over to the city to make that happen.

According to city attorney Mark Barnebey, the county will do so once they see construction begin, which DeRusso said could happen by spring.

It’s another sticking point because the current contract says if the county does not deed the property by Sept. 20, the financial responsibility is no longer the developer’s.

“It’s a possibility we could be at the county’s mercy as far as their agenda and schedule goes,” Varndore said. “It’s problematic then that the city would be locked into these agreements and then we have to rely on the county and they haven’t given us their word they would do it yet.”

Bryant said convention center staff, as well as county officials, “are very aware of this and know it behooves them as well to make this successful. It will move forward because they need a hotel there.”

This story was originally published December 18, 2018 at 7:58 AM.