All-suite Hilton headed for hotel-hungry Sarasota

The 2.5-acre Hilton Homes2 Suites site in Sarasota (Credit: Matt M. Johnson for the Bradenton Herald)
The 2.5-acre Hilton Homes2 Suites site in Sarasota (Credit: Matt M. Johnson for the Bradenton Herald)

Hotel-starved Sarasota may get a new 109-room Hilton Homes2 Suites hotel near both Sarasota-Bradenton international Airport and the University of South Florida’s Sarasota-Manatee campus.

The planned all-suite hotel development site at 8260 N. Tamiami Trail is a 2.5-acre tract zoned for commercial uses. The owner, Excel Sarasota 1 LLC, bought the land for $200,000 in November 2013.

The vacant 2.5 acres are located in front of an existing Hilton-brand hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn Sarasota-Bradenton Airport.

Sarasota County had more than 1 million paid lodgers in one year for the first time in 2015, but the Sarasota-Bradenton area has a limited amount of overnight lodging.

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Sarasota County currently has 5,166 rooms at motels and hotels, and neighboring Manatee County, the home of Bradenton, has 6,200.

Three  hotels are under construction in downtown Sarasota approximately four miles south of the site of the planned Hilton Home2 Suites location.

A new 139-room Starwood property, Aloft Sarasota, opened this year at South Palm Avenue and Ringling Boulevard, steps from Bayshore Drive in Sarasota. [Sarasota Herald-Tribune] — Mike Seemuth