Manatee County’s largest hotel, near convention center, has an opening date and a brand
The largest hotel in Manatee County — an eight-story, 252-room Marriott — should be open this time next year.
The hotel, which will be connected to the Bradenton Area Convention Center, One Haben Blvd. in Palmetto, will include a roof-top restaurant and swimming pool.
“We are on schedule and have been able to handle escalation and long lead times,” Tony DeRusso said Monday of supply-chain problems and rising costs.
DeRusso is minority owner and managing director of Improvement Network Development Partners, LLC and The Marriott Palmetto Resort.
When originally announced, the hotel was to be a Sheraton, but will instead be a Marriott.
“We are really excited about the brand change,” DeRusso said. “All of us will be very proud.”
Also planned is renovation and expansion of the convention center, which opened in 1985 and was last updated in 2007 at a cost of $6.5 million.
The county is working on convention center expansion plans with Fawley Bryant Architecture of Bradenton, said Elliott Falcione, executive director of the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Manatee County commissioners previously approved $17.1 million for the convention center project, which would include a 20,000-square-foot expansion, 14,000 square feet of which would be for a ballroom, seating 800 banquet-style, Falcione said.
A timeline is not yet available for start or completion of the convention center project.
The expanded hotel-convention center complex would allow the county to attract and host larger events.
Previously, the Bradenton Herald reported renovations envisioned for the convention center, would include new ceiling tiles, refinishing the floor, door replacements, restroom updating, kitchen upgrades, and repainting the interior and the exterior in colors complementary to the hotel.
Transportation option
One of the ways that future guests at the Palmetto Marriott might be able to get around Manatee County is a planned water taxi service.
Two 49-passenger pontoon boats ordered by Manatee County for a planned water taxi service should be available by May, Falcione said Monday during a meeting of the Manatee County Tourist Development Council.
The service linking Bradenton, the city of Anna Maria, Bradenton Beach and Coquina Beach would initially be offered Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
A stop would also be needed on the north shore of the Manatee River to serve Palmetto and the convention center, Falcione said.
The water taxi is seen as a way to alleviate road traffic between Anna Maria Island and the mainland and the chronic shortage of beach parking.
Growing Bradenton-area tourism
In 2022, the Bradenton area had more than a million visitors with an economic impact of $1.5 billion, Ann Wittine of Research Date reported to the Manatee County Tourist Development Council on Monday.
It was the first time the Bradenton area has hosted more than one million visitors, 36% more than in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, she said.
“We have seen phenomenal growth,” Wittine said.
The largest single feeder to Bradenton-area tourism is Florida with 393,530 visitors, up 78% from 2019.
Other major contributors include the Midwest with 229,380 visitors, up 39% from 2019, the Northeast with 192,990, up 19% from 2019, and the Southeast with 100,980 visitors, up 14% from 2019.
European tourism has been slower to rebound from the pandemic with 55,780 visitors in 2022, compared to 100,220 in 2019.
