Downtown Sarasota is no longer just home to condo-complexes, but a variety of new hotels are being added to the ever-growing city.

On July 11, the county approved the sale of the property at 20 N. Washington Blvd, to a developer her plans to build a 10-story hotel, consisting of about 140 rooms. This month as well, Tampa-based HG Management LLC filed plans to build a four-story, 131-room hotel at the northeast corner of Fruitville Rd and East Avenue.

Since 2016, more than 1,000 rooms have been built or are planned to be built in Sarasota. Ronald Gray, The new owner of 20 N. Washington Blvd, believes his hotel, named the Hotel Laurent, will be able to deliver the five-star service that Sarasota needs, just with a smaller footprint.

The hotel will likely include 130-140 rooms and feature a restaurant, lobby bar and spa. The targeted completion date for the project is the fourth quarter of 2020.

As for the Fruitville rd. project; that is proposed as a new Marriott Hotel, described as a limited-service hotel with three meeting rooms totaling 2,739 square feet. Along with the hotel, the proposal shows seven small offices totaling around 5,500 square feet. If the project goes forward, the developer would demolish three single-family homes on the site to allow for access off of Third Street.

These two projects are still in the very early stages of planning but are likely to increase tourism to this Bay-front City even more.