STEVE REID
Editor & Publisher
sreid@lbknews.com
Longboat Key St. Regis Developer and Owner Chuck Whittall was on the Indianapolis 500 racetrack last Friday, ready to enter a Ferrari competition race when he spoke with Longboat Key News about the first year the St. Regis has been open.
Whittall is an enthusiast. Like many developers, accolades and excitement infuse everyday dialogue.
“The hotel is doing great; much better than expected,” said Whittall when asked about occupancy rates, room rates and his experience over the first year.
Whittall said the Longboat Key St. Regis has commanded the top average daily rate for a Marriot Hotel in the world, averaging $2,000 per night.
“We’re sold out in June and July and we just earned a 5-Diamond rating from AAA,” said Whittall.
He said he expects to earn the Forbes 5-star rating by the year’s end.
Whittall said he was surprised that the resort has not seen a slowdown and that the 168 rooms have been mostly full since the beginning of the year. Whittall said that the resort has been noted as a family-friendly hotel and when asked what that means he said, “At any given moment, children and families enjoy the lazy river, the saltwater pool and the beach.”
St. Regis ready for Pickelball, tennis
Mr. Whittal said as the market keeps growing, he wants to meet the need for activities and his team is currently designing two tennis courts and four pickleball courts to be constructed on top of the water retention area on the south side of the property. He said they should be completed within a few months.
Whittall said the resort is also responding to customer demand to dine on the patio and he plans to completely enclose the patio with a glass enclosure in order to control temperatures and create more viable dining area overlooking the Gulf of Mexico.
When asked about rumors that he sold a significant interest in the hotel to a large development firm, he said he could not talk about financial details but that he owns the hotel and that will not change.
Currently Whittall’s development company, Unicorp, is building a 700-room Intercontinental Hotel in Orlando. He said that having built the St. Regis, “gives you credibility.”
Parking problems…
Residents on Longboat have become aware that the St. Regis has been using Town Center Green property owned by the Town to accommodate staff parking from the St. Regis.
The St. Regis has also approached the Seaplace Condominiums seeking to create an ongoing parking arrangement.
When asked if the hotel was approved by the town without enough parking to accommodate the staff and guests, Whittall responded, “Since we have been so full, we need a lot of parking and we may install lifts in our existing garage.”
Whittall said that the ultimate solution is that he would like to build a two-story garage on the front of the property on the site of an existing surface parking lot.
When asked if he had sold all of the condominium units that exist in a semi-circle to the south of the hotel, Whittall said there is only one remaining. He did say though that he saw the current real estate market and its challenges as “a cycle that will play out but interest rates are very high.”
In closing, Whittall said that the St. Regis purchased a flood dam that is a 5-foot tall barrier that can be placed around the resort in the event of a storm and it is filled with water, which is engineered to resist storm surges.
Following the conversation, Whittall was ready to do some laps at about 200 mph in his Ferrari challenger race that is part of a series that culminates in Italy.
