Close for Comfort

As Thanksgiving meals were served next door, the ground was broken at the Carlisle Inn of Sarasota.

That was November 2016. The new 100-room, four-story hotel, about a $15 million project, will open March 1. It will cater toward travelers of all kinds, including Amish and Mennonite visitors who come to Sarasota's unique Pinecraft community. Pinecraft, about four miles from downtown, is a haven for Amish and Mennonite people, and the 82,000-square-foot hotel is within biking distance of the center of the community.

Walnut Creek, Ohio-based Dutchman Hospitality Group owns the hotel. The group owns a Carlisle Inn in Walnut Creek and Sugarcreek, Ohio, plus Carlisle Country Inn in Berlin, Ohio, and Miller Manor in Walnut Creek. It also owns six restaurants, all in Ohio, except for the Der Dutchman restaurant it owns that shares the same property as Carlisle Inn of Sarasota.