Floridays still standing with Ovation

When the new 162-room Art Ovation Hotel held a preview event in mid-December in advance of opening early next month in downtown Sarasota, press reports left out one prominent Gulf Coast player.

Developers Prime Hospitality Group, of Hollywood, and Pennsylvania-based Shaner Hotels were featured, but Sarasota's Floridays Development Co. wasn't.

Floridays' CEO Angus Rogers says the company, which has been working to develop a lodging property on the formerly city-owned site at 1255 N. Palm Ave. since 2012, remains very much involved.

“There's no question that Floridays is the local partner in the project, in conjunction with Prime and Shaner,” Rogers says.

The Marriott Autograph Collection hotel — the fourth planned for the Gulf Coast from Tampa to Fort Myers — will feature an art theme with rotating art collections from local artists and travel packages targeting Sarasota's arts culture.

Each Autograph Collection property has an individual theme. Mainsail Development & Lodging's Epicurean hotel, in Tampa, for instance, leverages a food theme through an affiliation with nearby Bern's Steak House, cooking classes and demonstrations and food-tinged interior design.

Rogers had originally lined up a Hilton Hotels Corp. flag, Curio, for the downtown Sarasota hotel, but decided that Marriott's Autograph more established brand represented a “little better fit,” he says.

“It's been a labor of love, and we're finally ready to open the doors there,” Rogers says.

In addition to Art Ovation, Floridays developed the Grande Riviera condo tower in Sarasota; a 432-room resort in Orlando; and a 228-unit apartment complex in Viera.