Summit Hospitality Management Group plans to bring the Hard Rock brand to a renovated oceanfront hotel in Daytona Beach.
Family-run Summit acquired the 1950s-vintage Desert Inn in Daytona Beach for $6 million in 2013 and began to renovate it, with plans to reopen it as a 200-room Westin Hotel.
But after another developer, Canada-based Bayshore Capital, suspended plans to build a Hard Rock-branded hotel and condominium complex in Daytona Beach, Summit decided to pursue the Hard Rock brand instead of the Westin brand for the old Desert Inn at 900 North Atlantic Avenue.
Summit has asked the Volusia County Council for approval to operate the renovated Desert Inn under the Hard Rock brand instead of the Westin brand and to extend the deadline for opening the hotel from May 7 to December 31.
The council is expected to vote on Summit’s proposal at its meeting on Thursday. Several council members told the Daytona Beach News-Journal that they support Summit’s proposal.
Abbas Abdulhussein, managing member of Summit, told the newspaper that his company has a letter of intent from Orlando-based Hard Rock International to extend its brand to Summit’s hotel in Daytona Beach.
Besides 200 rooms, the Hard Rock Hotel in Daytona Beach would have two restaurants, 250 underground parking spaces, a 5,000-square-foot spa, a 6,300-square-foot banquet hall and 20,000 square feet of meeting space. The project’s construction cost is expected to exceed $40 million.
Summit isn’t planning a condominium component for the project. Slow presales of condos is one reason why Bayshore Capital scrapped its planned Hard Rock development in Daytona Beach.
Summit’s would be the 25th Hard Rock Hotel in the world and the fourth in Florida. The other three are in Hollywood, Orlando and Tampa. [Daytona Beach News-Journal] –Mike Seemuth