Six-story Pensacola Bay front hotel wins parking license from City Council
Parking will not be an issue for a new six-story hotel proposed for the Gateway Redevelopment District after the City Council unanimously approved a "license to use" agreement with the developers Thursday night.
Commercial real estate development company Kerioth Corporation is proposing to build a six-story, 132-room Homewood Suites by Hilton hotel at 801 E. Gregory St., but there was the possibility the proposal could be undone by not having enough parking for hotel guests.
The developers applied to build 21 parking spaces in public right-of-way on 13th Avenue and DeLeon Street for the exclusive use of the hotel under a city license to use (LTU) agreement.
The city can issue LTUs for public right-of-way to businesses in exchange for a fee and other requirements. Most often, LTUs are used by restaurants to use sidewalk space for dining; however, the city has approved LTUs for parking spaces in the past.
Split decision: New 6-story hotel proposed for Pensacola bayfront wants public property for private parking
The Planning Board split over the decision in a 2-2 vote last month after concerns over how the exclusive use would be enforced. Patrons to Another Broken Egg, located next door, often use the area to park on busy days.
Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves told the council the city was currently in the process of creating an administrative policy on LTUs to ensure that taxpayers are protected as the current $200 a year fee was not fair value.
Reeves said the developers put in writing that they understood they would have to comply with the new policy once it's in place.
"I do appreciate that they're not coming in saying I want the deal that was already given to me or verbally given to me by the city in a previous administration," Reeves said. "They're saying we understand that priorities change."
Councilwoman Allison Patton said the project could help move that area of the city into its next phase of development.
"This is not downtown," Patton said. "This is a relatively undeveloped area for us, with large swaths of parking lots all over the street. And I do believe that over time, as this is developed, this will hopefully become an area that has a lot more shared parking, and we can turn this area into something that's really good for our city."
Councilwoman Jennifer Brahier said she was reluctant to move forward with granting an LTU while the city was still developing an administrative process for them, but she trusted they would go forward with a new LTU once the mayor approves a new process.
Brahier said she was also concerned with the plans for the trees on the property and hoped the plan could be changed to save as many as possible.
"We'll leave it up to the planning board to move forward, but I will support it this evening with a little bit of reluctance," Brahier said.
Kerioth Corporation will spend about $250,000 to upgrade the few existing parking spaces and build new ones on top of the more than $30 million it will invest in the hotel.
Reeves said in this case, the benefits to the city in property tax on the project outweigh any holds ups over the granting of the LTU. Reeves estimated that the property could bring in $339,000 a year in property tax to the city's Community Redevelopment Agency alone, which is about 10 times more than the vacant piece of property currently generates. That number also doesn't include the tax revenue from sales or lodging the hotel will generate.
"The LTU that's going to be provided will be fair to the taxpayer as well as a microcosm of what was actually going to be generated here, and why we appreciate development like this," Reeves said.
The hotel developers must still win approval on the aesthetic design of the hotel from the Planning Board before the project moves forward. The Planning Board is set to vote on the design of the building next month.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Six-story Pensacola bay front hotel wins parking license
