Two Hilton brand hotels, a block from each other, have big plans for downtown

Two hotels are in the works for downtown Fort Myers, both under the Hilton hotel chain brand and set to rise on Jackson Street.

The city council recently approved the nine-story Tempo Hotel, while the other, Home 2 Suites, will seek financial incentives from the city and clearance from the city Historic Preservation Board before committing to construction.

Developers of both hotels plan to affiliate with brands owned by Hilton Worldwide Holdings, Inc.

The Fort Myers city council has approved development of the Tempo Hotel at Jackson and First streets. Just down the block, at Jackson and Second streets, a Georgia-based developer wants to build a Hilton Home2 Suites extended stay hotel.

Travelers who want it even fancier would travel three-tenths of a mile to another Hilton-affiliated hotel, the Hotel Bayan Tapestry Collection by Hilton, formerly the Hotel Indigo. The Banyan opened last year, three days after Hurricane Ian whipped through downtown on Sept. 28. New construction would mean three Hilton hotels downtown.

Over the past several years, downtown Fort Myers has become attractive to hotel developers. The Jackson Street hotels join others that have been built in recent years..

Still under construction is the Staybridge Suites, a five-story, 100-suite hotel at 2465 Second St., and a Hampton Inn, also by Hilton, at 2017 McGregor Blvd., is a four-story, 118-room hotel. Hampton Inn is expected to be completed soon.

Fort Myers' hotel building boom began with the 12-story Luminary Hotel, opened in September 2020 at 2200 Edwards Drive in Fort Myers, overlooking the Caloosahatchee River.

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The Tempo Hotel to tower over downtown

The Tempo Hotel will be the most recent in a series of investments considered for the Jackson Street corner. Five years ago, the plan was to open as First Street Place, a Marriott Hotel. It later changed to the Hotel Tempo.

The 1629 Jackson Street site – as numbered by the Lee County Property Appraiser– is the planned home of Home2 Suite. HOS Management bought it for $760,000 in 2020 from investors who had acquired it for $77,000 in 1998. One of the principles in the project told the CRA advisory board that the hotel would be "a limited offering, no frills, just your free breakfast" facility.

The planned suites hotel site was once owned by Major James Evans, the first person to make a viable survey of Fort Myers in the late 1800s. He created the city's angled streets by declining to remove squatters from his property and instead deeding the land to them.

Tempo is a new brand for the far-flung Hilton hotel chain. Unveiled three years ago, it is described by the hotelier's CEO Chris Nassetta in a session with securities analysts as a hotel aimed at an "emerging and sophisticated customer" who want hotel experiences that will put them at their best while traveling.

The Tempo will offer valet parking in the Main Street parking garage for 60 guest spaces leased from the city. A bar and lounge and a pool will open on the roof. At street level, landscape architects have included a style of brick similar to others in the downtown, with flower plantings and palm trees.

The hotel will face the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center and Izzie's Fish and Oyster restaurant and include a view of the Caloosahatchee River.

Tempo's developers gave up on a plan to have residential units on the site.

Home2 Suites has eyes on downtown Fort Myers

Home2 Suites hotels are already found in Lee County: one on Ben Hill Griffin Parkway, near the Southwest Florida airport's terminal access road, the other on Ford Street off Colonial Boulevard. The chain has more than 40 hotels in Florida, many clustered near beaches, offering separate sleeping and living areas and a kitchen.

Developers of the suites hotel want help from the city's tax increment funding program, created to use increases in property tax rates in a specifically defined area to close the funding gap between the capital a developer can access and the cost of construction.

The developers have warned the CRA advisory board that "we would not feel comfortable moving forward on this project if we were not to receive TIF assistance."

The city council, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency board, will make the decision on whether, and at what level, the city will provide financial assistance to Homes2 Suites. The developer is asking for $2.8 million. The CRA board will consider the plan at its meeting at 9 a.m. Monday

CRA advisory board member, Rachel Smith, who works as a commercial real estate underwriter, urged the developers to provide more current data, based on new information on the project.

"There's no real indication or promise that it's going to happen," Smith said. "The more you provide us, the better informed we are and the better decisions we can make."

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Tempo Hotel and Home2 Suites planned for downtown Fort Myers