With the pending demolition of one major property, a go-to ballroom spot for Sarasota events is being taken off the board. Kolter Hospitality intends to demolish the Hyatt Regency in Sarasota and rebuild it into a Thompson-branded hotel. The lack of a large, or even mid-size, branded convention center and meeting space in downtown Sarasota — long an issue for business and civic leaders — is inching closer to an inflection point. The crux of the issue: the new owners of the Hyatt Regency, at 1000 Boulevard of the Arts, plan to demolish the hotel and rebuild it into a Hyatt-branded Thompson Hotel. A timeline for that project, originally set for summer 2024, isn’t definitive. But whenever the Hyatt goes, a 10,000-square-foot ballroom that can seat some 750 people will go with it. “The Hyatt has been our meeting lifeline,” says Virginia Haley, President of Visit Sarasota County, the county’s tourism marketing arm. VSC works with dozens of groups and associations globally to hold and host meetings and events in the region. The Hyatt is in the upper end but still reasonably priced sector of the market, and a popular spot for both out of town groups and local […]
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