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Long-delayed Clearwater Beach megaresort to finally break ground

 
future: A rendering shows the 15-story towers of the 700,000-square-foot Wyndham Grand that is set to open in January 2017, just south of Pier 60.
future: A rendering shows the 15-story towers of the 700,000-square-foot Wyndham Grand that is set to open in January 2017, just south of Pier 60.
Published Jan. 14, 2015

CLEARWATER — It has long been called the most expensive parking lot in Florida.

More than a decade ago, high-profile Tampa philanthropist Kiran Patel paid $40 million for 3 acres of prime beachfront property in the heart of Clearwater Beach's tourist district. It was one of the priciest land purchases in Pinellas County history.

Patel dynamited three aging hotels and hatched plans to replace them with a ritzy "mega-resort." That fell apart when the economy crashed.

For years, the valuable land just south of Pier 60 functioned as a roughly paved parking lot for beachgoers — until recently, when construction fences sprang up around it.

Today, officials and business executives will gather at a groundbreaking ceremony for a high-end Wyndham Grand resort. It will be the largest structure ever built on Clearwater Beach, and one of the biggest hotels in the Tampa Bay area.

"The economy has been steadily improving. Banks are lending," said Patel, who had long struggled to secure financing for the 450-room resort. "In life, ups and downs come. In the end, we will have a property on the ocean that people will be proud of."

The 700,000-square-foot resort with a pair of 15-story towers is to open in January 2017 on Patel's property, which lies in the split between S Gulfview Boulevard and Coronado Drive. It's right next to the large, coral-colored Hyatt Regency Clearwater Beach, which opened in 2010 and was the most recent waterfront resort built in the bay area.

Wyndham Grand resorts are the most luxurious branch of the vast Wyndham hotel empire. In Florida, other Wyndham Grands are in Miami, Orlando, Kissimmee and Jupiter.

With plans for a grand ballroom and 20,000 square feet of meeting space, Patel's resort will seek to lure business conventions and large-scale social events as well as affluent travelers.

Along with the strengthening economy, Tampa Bay's record-breaking year-round tourism boom helped Patel seal the deal with lenders. Another factor, he said, is that the addition of high-end hotels like the Sandpearl Resort and Hyatt Regency have recast Clearwater Beach's image for upscale tourists.

"Clearwater Beach's landscape is changing from the small mom-and-pop-type locales," he said. "We're opening up opportunities for a different type of clientele."

Clearwater officials, who have expressed frustration over the years at the $40 million parking lot in the middle of their prized tourist district, are rejoicing that Patel appears ready to break ground.

"It's going to look fantastic. It will be a showpiece on the inside and the outside," said Mayor George Cretekos. He recalled disliking the original design for the hotel, which he called "a big box."

"Now, with the two separate towers, you'll see some sky between them as you're coming over the bridge. It will be a great addition to the beach."

A cardiologist turned entrepreneur, Patel founded WellCare HMO and built it into a $1-billion-a-year business before selling it. He and his wife, Dr. Pallavi Patel, have donated millions to Tampa Bay area charities.

But he had never been a real estate developer before he bought the beachfront property in the boom times of 2004. Other developers called the $40 million investment risky. "Maybe I overpaid," Patel acknowledged later that year. Then the real estate market slumped.

Eleven years later, Patel is up against a city-imposed deadline to break ground on the resort.

He must do so by Feb. 12 or lose $3 million in escrow payments he made to Clearwater in a deal to get deadline extensions. His project would also stand to lose 250 rooms of additional density approved by the city — a crippling blow. Construction crews are on the site because Patel has a foundation permit to do below-ground work there. He must finalize a deal with a lender and get a building permit for above-ground work in four weeks.

"We have no reason to believe he won't be able to do that," said City Attorney Pam Akin.

Bank of America will be the lead lender, Patel said. He said the project would create 2,000 construction jobs over two years, followed by about 500 permanent jobs at the finished resort.

Plans for the resort have gone through several incarnations over the past decade. The current plan calls for 100 of its 450 rooms to be timeshares, although that's still fluid, said Patel's director of development, Bill West, whose downtown St. Petersburg condo projects include Signature Place and Parkshore Plaza.

Today's groundbreaking is another sign of a building boom at Clearwater Beach. The Opal Sands Resort, a new 15-story beachfront hotel, is to open this fall. A groundbreaking was just held for a Hampton Inn & Suites planned for the beach's south end.

"There's a demand for more accommodations here," said Darlene Kole, executive director of the Clearwater Beach Chamber of Commerce. "We stay busy year-round."

Contact Mike Brassfield at brassfield@tampabay.com or (727) 445-4151. Follow @MikeBrassfield.