TO: Honorable Mayor & Members of the North Port Commission
FROM: Peter Lear, City Manager
TITLE: Limited Service Hotel - Request for Assistance
Recommended Action
For Commission to consider a fiscally sustainable form of City support for an investor to build a hotel in the City of North Port.
Background Information
Lodgco Hospitality, LLC is proposing a hotel development project at Tuscola Commons, a master-planned development that Economic Development helped bring to the City of North Port, starting in the summer of 2014. The proposed hotel brand belongs to a major flag and it will be what is called a 'limited service hotel.' After doing market analyses and feasibility studies, and talking to several funding sources, the developers determined that some form of impact fee assistance is necessary to lessen the comparatively higher risk that they face for the North Port location. Such high risk consists of several factors: one of which is the newness of the North Port market. No hotel currently exists in North Port and this is the first time that a hotel developer is being presented to a North Port City Commission.
The reality is North Port's hotel recruitment efforts are occurring in a very competitive market. Some communities around us are equipped with a better 'toolbox,' including at least one that has the ability to grant land to developers. We do not have that capability nor desire in North Port. In addition, there is a lack of existing comparable real estate within the area of what is considered the North Port trade area. It is very difficult for any feasibility study - on the part of consultants, appraisers, or bankers - to pin down what the true hard numbers are. Because it is a brand-new real estate product, there is naturally the need to rely partly on projections and estimates to complete the final analysis which typically are reliant upon financial and market data. It doe...
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