Sarasota hotel boom continues unabated

Sarasota County has added more than 500 hotel rooms in the past 18 months, and another 720 rooms are under construction — more than replacing the keys lost to condominium development a decade ago.

But while the addition of more than 1,200 new rooms to the county's inventory could create absorption issues, developers remain bullish.

Commercial real estate brokerage Colliers International, in its 3rd Quarter Florida Hotels Market Report, maintains that many more new rooms are in the offing .

“There are at least 10 additional hotels in various stages of planning; including those currently under construction they represent a 12.2% increase in supply,” Colliers' Executive Vice Presidents Kent Schwarz and Rich Lillis wrote.

That percentage represents the highest potential addition to supply in any submarket in Florida, the pair note.

The new projects include a planned 304-room replacement to the existing Sandcastle Hotel on Lido Beach by Ocean Properties Hotels Resorts and Affiliates, and a 118-room hotel proposed at 1351 Fruitville Road downtown by Choice Hotels International.

Interestingly, too, of the Top 10 most active hotel markets in Florida -- a list that includes Miami, Orlando, Tampa and Sarasota — Naples stands out as the only submarket without a hotel transaction so far this year.

That hasn't happened anywhere in Florida since 2010, when Naples again went 12 months without a sale, according to the Colliers' data. Conversely, 21 hotels in the Tampa submarket have traded thus far in 2017, for a total of $459 million.