Longboat Key Club and Resort adding $500M improvements
Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 9:56 AM EDT
Tampa Bay Business Journal - by Michael Hinman Staff Writer

Land that once held a Ritz-Carlton built by John Ringling will be part of an overall $500 million project announced Wednesday at Longboat Key Club and Resort near Sarasota.

The enhancements will include an 18-hole golf course designed by Rees Jones, 222 new hotel rooms and 261 new condominium residences on four land parcels at the resort's Islandside area, located on Gulf of Mexico Drive on the south end of Longboat Key.

The improvements are needed to help Longboat Key Club keep up with increased competition from other resort properties, according to details provided by developer Loeb Partners Realty of New York City. Many of the resort's current facilities date back to the 1980s, and spending money on enhancements could help Longboat Key Club use its location and on-site amenities to try and earn a five-star rating.

Besides the Islandside Golf Course, the north parcel of land on the north side of Longboat Club Road will feature 168 new golf club condo residences as well as a 28,000-square-foot meeting center. The south parcel on land between the south side of Longboat Club Road and New Pass will have 30 luxury waterfront villas, a 28,000-square-foot wellness center, Inn on the Pass that will have 222 hotel rooms and 51 condos, and a 6,400-square-foot restaurant. It also will be the site of the new 20,000-square-foot resort administration building.

Some or all of the proposed condos could be made available through the Longboat Key Club's rental program, according to the developer.

The additional units could create some traffic issues for residents in and around Longboat Key. However, the new hotel rooms and condos are not part of the same development district as the units approved in a recent referendum vote. The units fall within the club's original development plan from the 1970s that allowed it to have more than 1,500 units, Loeb Partners said.

Joining Loeb on the project are U.S. Assets Group of Sarasota as the project's lead development consultant, George F. Young Inc. of Bradenton as engineer, and the architect will be Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates Inc. of Coral Gables.

Loeb is managed by Nick Rizzo, which has been a part of more than $25 billion in real estate over the last 35 years, including reports and hotels in Illinois and Boston, a release said.

U.S. Assets Group has also been involved in The Founders Club, Orchid Beach Club and Beau Ciel in Sarasota, as well as En Provence in Longboat Key. George F. Young has worked on La Firenza in Longboat Key, Rivo at Ringling in Sarasota, and Lakewood Ranch's Main Street near Bradenton.

The new hotel will be built on the site where Ringling tried to build his Ritz-Carlton in 1925. He had to abandon it a year later at the start of the Great Depression despite being just 90 days from completion. Construction was never picked up again, and was eventually demolished four years after The Arvida Corp. purchased the property in 1959.

Loeb Partners purchased the resort in 1990.

The proposed resort plan could possibly support more than 600 jobs, according to economist Hank Fishkind. It could also create an annual economic impact of $60 million a year for Longboat Key.

The project will be built in four phases through 2014 starting with the golf course and Villas on the Pass by early 2009, a reception area and a dozen condos in 2010, 168 condos beginning in 2011 and hotel and final parcels to begin by late 2011 to early 2012.

http://tampabay.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2008/04/07/daily43.html?surround=lfn

We are talking about 3 5 star hotels in the Sarasota vicinity if all three projects happen. Beyond my wildest dreams but I doubt more then one ever happens.

Longboat Key resort mega restoration
By Aaron Kessler and Tom Bayles STAFF WRITERS
Published Friday, April 11, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.

It was just before Christmas in 2006, and the Longboat Key Club and Resort's general manager, Michael D. Welly, was on a plane to New York.

LOEB PARTNERS REALTY'S HOLDINGS

During the last 35 years, Loeb Partners Realty has been involved in more than $25 billion worth of real estate holdings, including office buildings and luxury hotels. The company's portfolio includes a total of 10.27 million square feet of office space and 1,788 hotel rooms:

In his hands was a presentation to embark on one of the most ambitious projects the club had ever seen, one that Welly thought was absolutely vital to restore the aging resort to its former glory.

The next day, Welly presented his ideas to the executives at Loeb Partners Realty, which bought club in 1990 for $25 million. By the time he headed back to Sarasota, the new course was set. The green light had been given.

The result was this week's unveiling of an ambitious, $500 million redevelopment of the resort to restore its luster and thrust it back to the top of the heap of elite destinations in Southwest Florida.

"It basically turns the clock back; we become new again," Welly said. "It creates a tremendous momentum."

Starting next year and finishing in 2014, a four-phase remaking of the resort will include a completely renovated golf course, a 28,000-square-foot spa and fitness center, 63 condos, 30 waterfront residences, a 222-room, five-star hotel and a 28,000-square-foot meeting center.

It is the latest of several mega-projects to be announced for Sarasota County in recent years, but one that its backers think has the best chance of turning up ground the soonest.

The $1 billion Sarasota Bayside development downtown is a vacant piece of land downtown embroiled in a foreclosure proceeding with several odd twists. The Proscenium, also a $1 billion endeavor, is still on the drawing board.

Welly said he thinks the Longboat Key Club has a built-in advantage by virtue of its long presence. "We're already here. People know us and have known us for 18 years," he said.

The company behind the modernization of the resort certainly has the deep pockets needed to get the job done. Loeb is a privately held New York-based real estate firm specializing in high-rise office buildings in major cities. They range from Wall Street and Madison Avenue in New York to properties in Chicago and Washington, D.C.

Loeb's hospitality holdings include not only the Longboat Key Club but two high-end hotels in New Orleans and Boston, and a golf course resort in Galena, Ill.

The origins of the company date back to the 1960s with the real estate firm of Loeb Rhoades & Co., which was the fourth-largest investment banking and securities business in the country at the time.

In 1979, the banking and security businesses were sold off but the principals of the firm retained its real estate operations.

During the last 35 years, Loeb has been involved in more than $25 billion worth of real estate holdings, including office buildings, luxury hotels, shopping centers and multifamily residences.

Loeb executives were unavailable Thursday for comment.

Welly said there was never pressure from New York to redevelop the site, but once the hotel idea came to the forefront, there was an eagerness to put a plan together. Things fell in place quickly after that.

In Welly's view, the club has another significant advantage when compared with other massive development projects that may someday vie for its share of the high-end market: It does not have to spend millions acquiring property.

These shaky economic times are not giving Welly and Loeb any pause, they insist. They are taking a long-term view of the lousy economic situation.

"We think at this point that by the time we begin the project, the cycle will be in our favor," he said. "And even if the market is not fully recovered, we still think we'll have a product to introduce that's very competitive."

Link to above article (http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080411/REALESTATE/804110451/1661)

Renderings from the article.

http://shimg.ny.publicus.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=SH&Date=20080411&Category=REALESTATE&ArtNo=804110451&Ref=B1&Profile=1661

http://shimg.ny.publicus.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=SH&Date=20080411&Category=REALESTATE&ArtNo=804110451&Ref=AR&Profile=1661

Looks cool. :okay:

Resort owner bullish about Longboat

By Tom Bayles tom.bayles@heraldtribune.com
Published Saturday, April 12, 2008 at 4:30 a.m.

Joseph S. Lesser has been the president and chief executive of Loeb Partners Realty and its predecessor group since 1968.

Loeb is the company that made headlines this week with a $500 million plan to dramatically upgrade the Longboat Key Club and Resort.

The 79-year-old has more than 40 years of experience in real estate acquisition and financing.

Lesser -- who oversees a portfolio of 22 upscale resorts, hotels and high-rise office buildings -- spoke with Herald-Tribune reporter Tom Bayles on Friday.

Q:The $500 million that Loeb Partners Realty is set to sink into the Longboat Key Club and Resort seems to be a vote of confidence in the future of the region. Are you that bullish on Sarasota?

A:Yes, we are bullish on Sarasota, and we are particularly bullish on Longboat Key and have been for a number of years. The market is soft now as I understand it in the state of Florida on condominiums, but we have confident that the economy will come back.

Q:Why this major renovation now?

A:Well, I think it's a beautiful destination resort now and we want to make sure it stays competitive. And we want to upscale it to a point where it is very attractive and conducive to the amenities it requires to make the people who visit it want to come back again and again.

Q:What was the genesis of the expansion?

A:It was a common consensus of all that in order to stay competitive with the first-class destination resorts around the country that you have to keep upgrading it and make sure that it stays competitive and it continues to be attractive. I would say the motivational force was (resort general manager) Michael Welly, who in our judgment is one of the finest operators of hotels and resorts that we've seen. He has been very enthusiastic about continuing to upgrade it and his reasons were solid and we've agreed with him. We're prepared to spend money and we have been spending money for quite some time to do so.

Q:Is this any sort of race for getting the property going before competitors -- namely Sarasota Bayside and the Proscenium -- begin construction here in Sarasota?

A:No. I don't think that that is a factor that enters into it. If they build and they complete, we wish them well. I think it's really a desire on our part and on the part of the owners of the condominium units to continue to have an attractive resort which will interest more people in coming to Longboat Key and Sarasota.

Q: Did the decision to start early in 2009 have anything to do with the fact that builders are hungry right now for business?

A:It really didn't. We've been planning this for a long time. We've been doing our research, our due diligence, our traffic studies, our engineering, our architectural concepts, our planning, our legal, for a considerable number of years. It is coincidental that it is starting at this time.

Q:In recent years you have invested about $10 million in improvements to such things as the golf course and spa. Why was that not enough?

A:We've been associated with it since I think 1990 and these types of resorts need constant attention. The golf course and all of the amenities -- the spa and all the other things -- need to continue to be improved. You can't take the money out, you've got to keep plowing it back in, to make it even better. And that's what we've been doing.

Q:When complete, where will the Longboat Key Club and Resort rank among your four hospitality holdings in terms of grandness?

A:The Longboat Key is far superior -- and that's going to get me into trouble with the other three resorts.

Q:Why did you choose not to build more?

A:We didn't want to be too dense, because part of the attractiveness of the Longboat Key Club and hotel is that it is spread out and it gives you that feeling of space. The golf courses, as you know, are outstanding. And we just wanted it to be a first-class operation and didn't want to overcrowd it.

Q:How has Loeb's holdings as a whole held up during the economic downtown?

A:Very good. Our function is to invest in properties in the United States on behalf of our domestic and overseas clients. And they've held up very well and the values have held up well. We're hopeful they'll continue to do so.

Last modified: April 12, 2008 2:15am

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