Jaguars float possibility of building hotel on Metropolitan Park land
While the City Council is still debating Jaguars owner Shad Khan’s proposed Lot J development deal, Jaguars team President Mark Lamping unveiled a development plan for the downtown riverfront, which would feature a Four Seasons hotel.
Lamping made the presentation at Nov. 12 at the Downtown Investment Authority’s Strategic Implementation Committee, which was considering incentives for the proposed Lot J project.
The new project would be developed on Metropolitan Park and the Shipyards and in addition to the hotel would have a medical complex, office space, 400 apartment units, parking garages, a marina and a Riverwalk extension.
Lamping said the project would be done at the same time as Lot J, which will require the city borrowing $200 million.
“The public involvement in that will be significantly less both from a dollar standpoint and from a percentage of project standpoint – because of Lot J,” Lamping said.
The Four Seasons, which Khan would own, would have a 10,000-square-foot spa and 11,000 square feet of food and beverage concessions. Khan already owns a Four Seasons hotel in Toronto. The nearest Four Seasons is in Orlando where rooms cost $600 a night.
Lamping said the project could begin within six months of reaching an agreement with the city.
But before any construction can begin, two hurdles must be cleared:
The first, the Shipyards is a brownfield site, and Lamping said his team is waiting on an environmental status report from the state.
The second, Metropolitan Park cannot be developed until another site for a public park is found and approved by the National Park Service due to a clause in federal funding contract used to build the park in the 1980s.
The city has asked the federal agency whether it can swap Metropolitan Park for the Shipyards. Lamping said a portion of the Shipyards property could be set aside for the park.
The Museum of Science and History (MOSH) has also announced plans to relocate its museum facility onto property on the Shipyards site.
By Lilla Ross
Resident community News
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