$80M Naples hotel to target five-star tourists, locals

After developing The Perry Hotel & Marina in Key West, FOD Capital had no plans to create another.

At least not until it was approached by a landowner in northern Naples who wanted to establish a hotel on their property, according to a recent article by Beth Luberecki of Business Observer.

The parcel’s owner visited Key West and chose The Perry Hotel over other options, according to reports. Additionally, he said, “I want you guys to come and put The Perry up on this property that I have,” stated Michael Raymond, CEO of Key West-based FOD Capital, which has invested in a number of enterprises, including an infertility treatment business and an all-terrain vehicle company.

He and his team started researching the Naples area and conducting market feasibility studies. They liked what they saw. “We got really excited about the location,” adds Raymond. “The market demographics and the hospitality market in Naples are extremely strong.”

The Perry Hotel Naples was a go. FOD Perry Naples LLC, a FOD Capital firm, purchased the 6.3-acre hotel site at 805 Walkerbilt Road from Bay House Campus LLC for $4.8 million in August 2021, according to Collier County property records. The mailing address for Bay House Campus is the same as the Bellasera Hotel in Naples, and the LLC’s manager, according to the Florida Division of Corporations website, is Edward Negley, a co-owner of the Bellasera and other hospitality properties.

Meanwhile, construction began approximately a year ago, and the $80 million hotel on the Cocohatchee River in north Naples is expected to open in the fall of 2024.

Raymond realized he already had a successful template on which to build. “I’m a firm believer in, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” he elaborates. “So we went with a lot of the same design team and construction team that we had for The Perry in Key West.”

Marino Construction Group of Key West and Casa Conde & Associates, a design firm based in Fort Lauderdale, were among those involved. “We tried to get some economies of scale in what we learned with the first Perry,” Raymond stated. “You’ll see that many of the room and lobby design features have been carried over. It was a mix of what worked in Key West and some original designs.”

The 160-room, seven-story hotel has a modern industrial aesthetic, with rustic materials like stone and exposed brick blending with industrial accents like steel beams and metal chandeliers. The majority of the guest rooms and suites will have balconies, and the seventh-floor pool and Asian fusion restaurant, Tigress, should be particularly enticing after sunset.

Back on ground level, there will be another pool with a poolside cafe, an exercise lawn, a lobby coffee bar, and a boardwalk through the mangroves to the hotel’s eight-slip marina and pier, which provides direct Gulf of Mexico access. A shuttle service will transport guests to local beaches on a regular basis, and fishing trips, dolphin and sunset cruises, and other watersports activities will depart from the pier as well.

The hotel’s distinctive riverfront setting should be a selling point. “The resort itself is supposed to be something of a destination resort,” Raymond explains.” “We’re pretty confident that once people come and experience the restaurant and the rooftop bar and pool, that that’s going to be a magnet for people to make repeat visits.”

A yet-to-be-announced chef who has appeared on TV shows such as “Top Chef,” “Chopped,” and “Iron Chef America” will collaborate with the hotel on the Tigress menu. “He helped us design the menu and is going to help us execute on it,” Raymond explains. “We’re really excited about that.”

Raymond envisions the restaurant attracting both hotel guests and locals. “By having a restaurant of this caliber, we think we’ll be able to develop a regular clientele in the offseason,” the chef explains.

The hotel’s target demographics will include family, business, and leisure tourists. “We’re sort of in that premium to super-premium category; call it a four-and-a-half-star type of quality experience,” Raymond says. “If you look at the Naples market, you’ll notice a lot of older three and a half to four star properties, as well as The Ritz and a few other luxury properties. We are not trying to compete with them for business events or the like. But we’re in the more cheap yet high-quality, immersive market.”

While it was simple to secure a construction and design team for the project, coordinating the necessary trades proved more difficult. Especially in Southwest Florida, where the rehabilitation from Hurricane Ian in 2022 continues.

“A lot of the trades are just swimming in work,” Raymond says. “They are a little more picky about the jobs they take on. So bidding was a little more difficult than it would be in a more normalized environment, but we were able to get everything within our budget.”

Hiring for the hotel’s 100-plus workers has been a different tale. “It’s actually been quite a pleasant surprise,” adds Raymond. “I believe that many individuals enjoy being involved and affiliated with a new and interesting enterprise such as this. And folks who might not be tempted to go from one older hospitality location to another are looking at this and saying, ‘Wow, this is really great and exciting.’ They’re offering us a new perspective, and once they do, we have them.”

Could there be more Perry Hotels down the road? “Well, I’ll never say never,” Raymond replies. “We were completely satisfied with the original Perry hotel. Then this invitation arrived, and we became enamored with the strength of the Naples hospitality business. The hypothesis showed itself to us, and it was difficult to say no.”

“Whether we replicate this in other venues, it’s difficult to say at this point,” according to him. “We’re pretty focused on this, and we’re pretty confident that we’re going to knock it out of the park with this venue.”

This article originally appeared on Business Observer