Ritz-Carlton GM returns to Southwest Florida

The Southwest Florida luxury hospitality industry has welcomed back a familiar face after a nearly eight-year absence.

Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. has tapped James McManemon to lead its two properties in Naples — a 295-room Golf Resort at 2600 Tiburon Drive and a 450-room, waterfront hotel at 280 Vanderbilt Beach Road.

McManemon replaces Edward Staros, a Southwest Florida Business Hall of fame inductee, who retired from the hotel company after 37 years.

“These are two iconic hotels,” McManemon says. “And it’s so good to be back in Southwest Florida.”

McManemon, who also has spent three decades with the Marriott International Inc. luxury brand, led the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota resort — which includes the 225-room hotel, spa, affiliated beach club and an 18-hole golf course — for nearly a decade before leaving in late 2011 to lead the 444-room Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island.

The two Naples Ritz-Carlton properties are owned by Host Marriott Corp., which spun off from the Marriott International operating entity in the late 1990s.