More hotels for downtown St. Augustine

[thelakelander]

By KATI BEXLEY | More by this reporter | kati.bexley@staugustinerecord.com | Posted: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 ; Updated: 12:02 PM on Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Hotelier Kanti Patel will try to repeat his success with the Hilton Historic Bayfront hotel with an adjacent building, and he has plans for at least two more hotels in downtown St. Augustine.

And though Patel is replacing run-down buildings with upscale hotels, he said he isn't consciously trying to change downtown.

"It just happened," he said. "I didn't have a plan to do this. I just found these opportunities."


His renovations for The Monterey Inn, 16 Avenida Menendez, were recently approved by St. Augustine's Historic Architecture Review Board. He'll spend $2 million to $3 million on transforming it into a 59-room upscale Best Western, he said. And he hopes it later will become a Hampton Inn.

The building's new Colonial architecture will make the hotel seem like it is broken up in separate buildings, similar to the Hilton, said Mark Knight, city planning and building director.

Patel also will create a walkway through the building from Charlotte Street to Avenida Menendez.

"It's just like we did with the Hilton," he said.
The community has praised Patel for his work on the Hilton Historic Bayfront, which replicates Spanish buildings of the 1700s.

In January, Patel will go before the Architecture Review Board for final approval, and he expects start construction in April, Knight said.

And in December and January, Patel will bring new designs of another hotel to the board. The Victorian-style Hotel San Marco, at 6 Castillo Drive and 28 San Marco Ave., will have 88-rooms.

Patel is developing his third project to build yet another hotel on the Bozard Ford property, at 1700 Ponce de Leon Blvd.

The car dealership will move to a new location near Interstate 95 and State Road 16.

In the next year, Patel hopes to have Marriott back a 200-room hotel on the property. And if that falls through, he's planning on two 100-room Hilton hotels.

"We are doing a lot of things right now," he said. "Everything just came together in the last year or so."

http://staugustine.com/stories/101607/news_stories_001.shtml