Panhandle firm continues push into Sarasota hotel market

Gulf Breeze-based hotel management company Innisfree Hotels added another Sarasota hotel to its portfolio with the purchase of Hotel Indigo.

The hotel is in the Rosemary District, just north of downtown Sarasota. Terms of the purchase weren't disclosed.

Innisfree Hotels is also developing a Hampton Inn and Suites and an Embassy Suites by Hilton, which is currently under construction, in downtown Sarasota. Innisfree founder and CEO Julian MacQueen says the company and its partners now have more than $100 million invested in the area, according to a story in the Sarasota Observer, sister paper of the Business Observer.

The hotel room market in the downtown Sarasota area is in boom mode, with at least 1,300 rooms in some form of development or proposal. MacQueen, in the Sarasota Observer story, says he's optimistic the market will stabilize over time.

“You can't come in with that many rooms and not feel a pinch in occupancy," MacQueen says. "But when I buy or build a hotel I do it for 20 to 25 years. I'm not thinking short term, I'm thinking long term.”

Innisfree Hotels was founded in 1985 and owns and manages 17 hotel properties.