Major developer plans to raze noted hotel, rebuild it

SARASOTA — One of Florida's largest hotel owners plans to redevelop the former Helmsley Sandcastle Resort in Sarasota and add 128 new rooms to the beachfront lodging property.

Ocean Properties Hotels Resorts & Affiliates seeks to raze the existing hotel, completed in 1953, and build a 304-room hotel and related space in a pair of towers slated to rise nine and 10 floors, according to a development documents submitted to Sarasota city officials.

“In order to be competitive, they need to update the hotel and make it a more contemporary beach resort,” says Bruce Franklin, president of Land Resource Strategies, the real estate consulting firm working with Ocean Properties on the proposal.