Winter Garden considering property sale for 60-room boutique hotel on Plant Street

It was standing-room-only during an April 17 community meeting regarding the potential development of a hotel in downtown Winter Garden.

The proposed 60-room boutique hotel, which would be located in a three-story building on Plant Street, south of Bay Street and west of Highland Avenue, is mainly being designed by Studio Tack — a New York-based innovative design group. 

“It's a boutique hotel concept, so it's not tied to any big hotel brand like Hyatt or Marriott,” said Matthew Jassak, a development partner of JA Hospitality LLC, the project developer. “It's totally unique and totally catered to this community. Our goal in each one of our projects is to allow people to travel and live like a local and get to experience the local community.”

The first floor of the hotel, he said, would include a restaurant and meeting space for about 150 people. The site does not include parking.

Although no residents disagreed about the need for more hotels in Winter Garden, the project plans sparked concern among the 150 to 200 attendees because of the lack of on-site parking and the proposed site location.

“My biggest concern is the location, specifically, having it on Plant Street versus on Dillard Street,” said Joan Giovanni, a 26-year Winter Garden resident. “Dillard Street is more of a commercial district, so that’s more appropriate for a hotel and the traffic that would follow. And to be between the Masonic Lodge and the American Legion — I mean, it just doesn’t make sense to me that you would put a hotel there. And the homes are so close. There would be a great impact on the residents, and the city manager seemed a little unconcerned by the points raised from the residents living in that area. So I think we could definitely use a hotel, but it’s the placement on West Plant Street that just makes no sense.”

Jassak explained the Plant Street site made more sense in terms of their goals to encourage guests to engage in the community.

“We wanted to encourage guests to be actively engaged in the downtown area,” Jassak said. “The Dillard site is on the cusp of,  hopefully, what has become an expansion of Plant Street east. But right now, if you were to put a hotel there, it would sort of be ahead of the curve. It’s in a revitalization mode, but it’s in the very early stages. It’s across from a church, a Chinese restaurant, a diner and a laundromat, and I think that’s all that’s in the immediate vicinity. As opposed to this site, which is directly across Winter Garden City Hall, directly adjacent to the Farmer’s Market and directly across from Plant Street. So it’s really the perfect location for someone to truly immerse themselves in Winter Garden.”

Another point of concern among attendees was the fact that the city provided the developer with a waiver for its parking-space requirements and had plans to reserve the top floor of the city’s downtown parking garage for hotel guests.

According to the conceptual design, the hotel does not include parking spaces — only an area for valet parking. Jassak explained there is no room to add parking spaces on the site.

“The site is not large enough to accommodate any parking, so all the parking will be provided off-site in a couple different locations via valet, including the rooftop of the city’s parking garage, as well as other parking locations the city is bringing online in the next 24 months,” Jassak said.

However, after the meeting, Winter Garden City Manager Mike Bollhoefer said in response to the number of comments from residents regarding the parking issue, the city will review its plans and possibly hold a second community meeting before the proposal is presented to the City Commission. 

“The two main things we’re looking at is the transportation system and the parking plan,” Bollhoefer said. “One of the big issues was having it reserved for them to park on the roof. There was some concern with that, and maybe that’s not the best way to do it. So we’re going to look at all other options to handle the parking at the hotel. We haven’t had time to determine if we’ll make any changes, but there’s a pretty good chance we’ll make some changes. Although we won’t be trying to add parking to the site. There’s really no room on-site, so there’s nothing we can do to change that.”

Bollhoefer also emphasized the city has not yet reached a purchase agreement for the site with the developer.

“It’s important to note that we have not yet reached an agreement with these people on the hotel regarding the purchase price of the property, nor have we finalized a parking plan,” he said. “Subsequent to last night’s meeting, we’re going back and taking a look at those issues and seeing what adjustments can be made before we come up with a plan to present to the commission. And (because) there were so many comments, and some of them valid, we’re probably going to schedule another community meeting before we move forward with this project. And that might also change the timeframe for the project.”

Originally, commissioners were to be presented with the proposed hotel plans in May, but that likely will be delayed to allow the city time to make any needed adjustments, he said. If approved, the developer hopes to complete construction of the hotel, which is estimated to cost between $14 and $18 million, by 2021, Jassak said.