New Bradenton convention center hotel will be a resort 'destination.' (Tampa: tenants, theater)

[wondermint2]

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When the eight-story, 252-room Marriott opens next door to the Bradenton Area Convention Center in early 2024, it will be more than a hotel.

It will be at the heart of a new destination.

Planned for the property is 10,000-square-feet of retail space, facing an amphitheater with stage that can accommodate 5,500 people, plus another retail space totaling 7,500 square feet.

Potential anchor tenants include Italian and Asian restaurants, a drive-thru coffee shop and a car showroom.

Also planned: 10,000 square feet of meeting space, a 50,000-gallon swimming pool and a recording studio, for possible special event coverage.

Several years in the future, there could be a second hotel on the property, this one planned for 121 rooms.

Although it won't be opened at the same time as the Marriott Palmetto, a multi-million dollar private beach club for hotel guests is planned across the street at the Riviera Dunes property, including a golf putting course, a restaurant, bocce ball and pickleball.

"It's a prototype, the first of its kind," Greg Ciaccio, general manager, said of the resort complex. "Everything will be best in class."

A ship on land

The Marriott Palmetto Resort is designed as a "ship on land," from its rooftop Oyster River restaurant with panoramic views of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and Bradenton-Palmetto, down to its ground floor and boardwalk-like promenade that skirts the front side of the building.

The hotel will have three kitchens, one to serve the Oyster River restaurant, another to serve the ground level The Social restaurant and a third to cater special events and gatherings.

Ciaccio is the first staff member to come on board, and they're looking to hire 225-250 people.

While the hotel will be a destination onto itself, it is also part of a broader community vision that stretches from Tampa in the north to south of Sarasota and all that Southwest Florida has to offer.

The Yard, as the amphitheater and stage and surrounding retail is called, is planned for events 365 days a year. About half of them would be community oriented.

Community events could include food truck rallies, winter wonderland and more.