Fort Myers hotel gets $7 million upgrade, rebrand

The Crowne Plaza Fort Myers Gulf Coast hotel has a unveiled a $7 million renovation that allowed it to rebrand from its previous Holiday Inn flag.

The hotel is at 9931 Interstate Commerce Dr., just off Alico Road and Interstate 75. The project included updating meeting and conference spaces, adding a new 24-hour marketplace, redesigning the 169 guest rooms and expanding the Oasis Restaurant & Bar.

A major focus of the renovation work was to secure the more prestigious Crowne Plaza flag, an upgrade from the original Holiday Inn. But it was also an opportunity to do needed work to the property, which was built in 2008, says managing director Brian Holly.

“Even hotels such as ours, which has an outstanding preventative maintenance program and daily housekeeping services, should invest in renovation every 10 years,” he says, adding that “even though the hotel still showed new and was receiving great guest feedback, we opted to renovate with a warmer, more serene color palette and all new custom-made furnishings.” 

Courtesy image

That 10-year timeline was thrown off because of Covid and supply chain issues, so the initial meetings with the contractors and designers began in June 2021.

At that time, the team outlined the two phases of renovation.

Phase one, Holly says, consisted of renovating and expanding space on the first floor of the hotel, including the front desk, lobby, restaurant and bar, business center and fitness center

A statement from the Crowne Plaza Fort Myers Gulf Coast adds that the upgrades introduce “a new modern interior design aesthetic, evident in the mid-century modern furnishings, the swirling gold rings of the lobby’s 260-pound chandelier and quartz reception desks with waterfall edges and custom-designed illuminated gold acrylic panels.”

Inside, the colors and trims were updated, and the exterior was updated with a white façade and gray accents.

As part of the first phase of work, the former fitness center space was converted into a boardroom with ergonomic chairs and a lake view. The a new fitness center is 800 square feet and also has a lake view.

Another addition was a collaborative workspace called The Studio, which Holly calls “a ‘think tank’ unique in Southwest Florida.”

The official rebranding to the Crowne Plaza flag happened in May 2023 when the first phase of the project was completed.

The second phase focused on the 169 guest rooms, says Holly.

Work began in February 2022 after all the furniture, fixtures and equipment were selected and approved, and was completed in February, Holly says.

Photo by Stefania Pifferi

The renovation was done in stages, with the hotel shutting 10 to 20 rooms at a time. This scope of the work included upgrading every facet of the guest rooms and the corridors with warm finishes, lighting and custom-made furniture. The rooms — and main gathering spaces — all were designed to meet Crowne Plaza’s design standards for a business class hotel, which includes charging stations, free Wifi and oversized desks and workspaces.

Other touches in the overall renovation include:

• Adding wrapped walls, metal screens, additional banquettes and tables — all with lake views — to the Oasis Restaurant & Bar.
• Including design touches referencing Thomas Edison and Henry Ford in abstract artwork featuring light bulbs, headlights, Model Ts and banyan trees.
• Employing resort-style amenities, including a lakefront pool, hot tub spa and alfresco fire pit to cater to the business traveler.

The hotel, even though it changed names about halfway through the process, remained open during the renovation. It did close one time for a two-day period when walls had to be knocked down in the lobby to expand the space.

Holly says during that time, reservations were transferred to nearby hotels. “You can’t have guests in the hotel when you are knocking down walls.”

To make sure the work and the daily operations of a hotel co-existed, Intercontinental Hotels Group picked the general contractor and interior designer. (Crowne Plaza Fort Myers Gulf Coast is an IHG franchise. Holiday Inn is also an IHG flag).

Holly says they companies were chosen, in part, because of experience on projects of this nature. “They worked quietly, seamlessly, and synergistically behind temporary finished walls which moved around the hotel to conceal their work,” Holly says.

Among those was Lisa Robinson, president and owner of Luxe Hospitality Design in Atlanta. Robinson was the original interior designer when the hotel was first built.

With the work now done, Holly, when asked what is different about the space, says, “everything.”

“It is literally a brand-new hotel.”