If you build it, they will come. That strategy worked for Kevin Costner’s character in “Field of Dreams,” but in the hotel industry it’s more complicated.
A plan to build a 3-story, 110-room hotel on Route 60 by the Applebee’s restaurant just got an initial green light from Indian River County’s Planning and Zoning Commission.
The concept here is actually broader than a single building on a nearly 10-acre parcel. Besides the anchor hotel, there will be four other structures – a tire store and three additional buildings that will house retail or restaurants.
What’s peculiar is the location. Nearly all of the area’s lodging establishments are concentrated in three areas that are far from this site:
- Close to Interstate 95 and Vero Beach Outlets.
- The U.S. 1 corridor in Vero Beach.
- Along the beach on the barrier island.
And not a hotel for miles in any direction. So what’s the developer’s logic?
“I admit, people [in the industry] are dumbfounded,” said Keith Kite, a broker with Coldwell Banker. He noted that it’s typical to find lodgings clustered together.
Kite added that the nearest plausible customer base could be Historic Dodgertown, where youth baseball tournaments abound in season and high school, college and professional sports teams train year round.
The facility has a 1950s-era motel-like complex to house teams, but it is not nearly large enough to hold all the people who show up for some events, including parents, grandparents and siblings of players.
Billy Moss, well known in local commercial real estate, thinks Dodgertown may well be the main driver of business for the new hotel.
“With all the baseball teams coming to town to play at Dodgertown, it will help to promote our economy,” Moss said.
“I think it will be great,” Moss added.
He should know. He has an 11-year-old son who plays on a travel baseball team. Those teams compete on fields around the state, including Dodgertown – which has great appeal to young players because of its storied past – and when the players come, their families often come with them, occupying hotel rooms, eating in local restaurants and shopping in area stores.
The firm looking to develop the site, Konover South Corp., needed to rezone the land before the project could go forward. A critical phase of that process took place this week when P&Z signed off on the plan.
The former zoning, Limited Commercial, satisfied all but two of the intended uses: the tire shop because of its use of automotive fluids and the potential for spills, and a fast-food restaurant with a drive-
thru window.
To get around the problem, Konover had two options: seek rezoning to General Commercial, or to Planned Development. County planning staff recommended the latter.
Konover followed the staff recommendation and Planning and Zoning approved the plan at its most recent meeting.
However, before the plan can proceed, the Board of County Commissioners must approve the rezoning. The commissioners could also place additional conditions on the project.
Augustin Amaro is director of construction for Konover South. Assuming commissioners OK the project, he’ll oversee construction of the retail sites, which will be built first. The hotel is a separate project even though it shares the parcel.
“It will likely be January or February 2018 before we get the final drawings,” Amaro said in a phone interview. Once that’s done, infrastructure work on the site will take another 7-8 months.
Amaro estimated that the entire development, including the hotel, will run in the neighborhood of $40 million.
Ryan Sweeney, a senior planner for Indian River County who reviewed the Konover project, pointed out that the brand that assumes the hotel will pay for and oversee construction.
The project will also require some work on the county’s part. Sweeney said some turn lanes may have to be extended to accommodate more traffic, but he doesn’t anticipate adding more traffic signals.
The 10-acre parcel being rezoned is known as a haven for the homeless, and was the location of a mysterious death.
In September 2016 deputies from the Indian River Sheriff’s Office recovered the body of 44-year-old Tisa Lynn McCann of Melbourne. A driver delivering stock to the neighboring Walmart smelled the decomposing body, which was found nearby. A cause of death was never determined.
Clearing the site would force any remaining homeless people to relocate.
