Colson Hotel to be restored as a business incubator

It could be a jazz club, or perhaps restored as a hotel.

Instead, the new nonprofit ownership of the historic Colson Hotel on the edge of the Rosemary District near Newtown plans to honor the century-old building’s roots by providing spaces oriented toward entrepreneurs across all demographics to help plant their own seedlings and eventually branch out into the business world.

Anand Pallegar led a collaborative effort to purchase the Colson Hotel at 1425 Eighth St. for $700,000 from a developer, saving it from likely demolition. Now that the remnants of years of occupation by vagrants have been removed, Pallegar’s DreamLarge marketing firm, Gulf Coast Community Foundation and Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation — partners in Save Sarasota Historic Properties Inc. — the concept of the Colson Collective has materialized.