The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, the fourth-largest casino in the nation, has proposed building the second-largest hotel in Hillsborough County, Florida at its Tampa casino location—a 1.2 million square foot, 16-floor tower with 537 rooms. The Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina is the largest downtown Tampa hotel with 27 floors and 719 rooms.
Seminole Tribe spokesman Gary Bitner said, “It’s still very early in the process and no formal approval has been given by the tribal council of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. It would certainly be wonderful to come out and say this is going to be a great thing for Tampa Bay and maybe it will be at some point but it’s too early to get on that bandwagon.”
Upon completion of the proposed hotel, the second hotel to be built at the Hard Rock complex, the facility would have a total of 817 rooms. The project also would increase gaming space at the most lucrative of the Seminole Tribe’s seven Florida casinos.
The Seminoles asked for a height variance for the project from the
Federal officials and the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority, operators of Tampa International Airport, stated the Seminoles’ requested height variance for the 240-foot hotel would not interfere with flight operations.
Bitner said the tribe had not decided whether it will pursue other proposed amenities that were proposed when the Tampa Bay area and the country were deep in recession. The tribe did complete a $75 million expansion of the casino floor in 2012. The expansive gaming area surpasses five football fields and offers 5,000 slots, 110 table games and 50 poker tables.
However, he noted existing hotels are benefiting from increased tourism, hotel profits and an improved real estate market. New hotels are opening, including Aloft Downtown Tampa, the Epicurean and Le Meridien Tampa. A groundbreaking recently was held for philanthropist Kiran Patel’s new 450-room Wyndham Grand resort with twin 15-story towers along Clearwater Beach. Existing hotels also are being bought up, including the 416-room Hilton Clearwater Beach which sold for $134 million, a record price for a Pinellas County hotel. The Marriott Waterside was bought by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik for $150 million.
The tribe can afford the hotel and other expansion projects. Last year, it collected more than $2 billion in revenue from all of its Florida gambling operations, with 40 percent from the Tampa casino, Bitner said. Meanwhile, the tribe is pursuing regulatory approvals for the proposed hotel as it watches developments in the state legislature regarding the renewal of the Seminole compact.
