In the Know: 'High-end' hotel slated for most congested spot in Naples

East of Goodlette-Frank Road, up to 65,000 motorists a day jam U.S. 41, the most packed piece of pavement in the city of Naples.

And many of them get there via the intersection of U.S. 41 and Goodlette, its second busiest street based on 2020 studies analyzed by In the Know.

That's the spot where plans are in the works to erect an AC Marriott as part of a concept for about five acres. Construction could begin as soon as November on high-profile land that has been considered for other unsuccessful projects over the years.

"For all of us who have been here a long time, the access to this property has always been awkward because there's no ready opportunity for a left turn from the East Trail into the property or access off Goodlette Road on the other side," city Planning Advisory Board member Bruce Selfon said. "I'm fretting about the traffic flow."

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To compound issues, drivers leaving Goodlette to access the property would first need to be funneled 203 feet to 12th Street and Third Avenue South, the worst-rated roundabout in all of Collier County.

"It just doesn't look to me that one lane in and out of Goodlette Road that goes relatively quickly to a roundabout, (where) people tend to slow down anyway, works," said Selfon, a bicyclist who's familiar with the squeeze through there, along with cars and walkers. "I am concerned that all of the traffic now obliged to visit the hotel or the surface lot, (has) to navigate that circle as well as the traffic that is going from Goodlette."

County analysts previously studied Collier's rotaries and concluded this was "the worst location that they found," said Alison B. Bickett, traffic engineer for city of Naples.

"The roundabout was designed many years ago before the modern roundabout," Bickett said. "That roundabout does not meet the current guidelines."

The concern doesn't stop Selfon from supporting the endeavor, which developers are billing as "the vibrant architecturally attractive welcoming anchor to the eastern entrance to Fifth Avenue (at) the crossroads of the downtown district."

"I come from Washington, D.C., a city of circles, so it's not so daunting," said Selton, a retired legal practitioner who studied at Georgetown and Stanford. "I'm completely confident that the development team doesn't want a traffic jam."

City Council member Raymond Christman also backs the three-story hotel location.

"A hotel is a logical choice. What's terrific about this project is that it's a high-end hotel," Christman said. "I've been an enthusiastic supporter."

Like some other Naples leaders, he considers it important to better linking downtown to the surrounding area.

"This site is a very important site in the city of Naples, and it's been bare dirt for a long time. And so it's a strategic intersection," Christman said. "A hotel is the most logical project to build there from a number of standpoints including the economics of the site, but also what would benefit Naples most."

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'Connecting Fifth Avenue South, the Gordon River and Baker Park'

That's what heavy hitters behind the 150-room venture are selling, including attorney John Passidomo, husband of Kathleen Passidomo, slated to become the third woman in history to serve as Florida Senate president.

"The strategic central location of the proposed hotel (connects) waterfront public access easements to the east that many people unfortunately don't know about and don't enjoy with immediately adjacent Tin City and Bayfront, which have historically been isolated from the downtown area," said John Passidomo. The Marriott boosts the area "by facilitating pedestrian linkage to Fifth Avenue South, the special overlay district for Bayfront, Tin City and otherwise remote and heretofore forgotten East Trail destinations."

He calls the Marriott "a dynamic linchpin connecting Fifth Avenue South, the Gordon River and Baker Park" that also benefits and ties in "the Design District, the Sugden theatre, the beach," the Naples Square development and other aspects of the region.

And then there's another biggie: "The Gulfshore Playhouse, which will be our immediate neighbor," he said.

Backers expect a debut of the cultural arts campus near Goodlette and First Avenue South by 2023, which would likely fall within a similar time frame for the Marriott. Donors, including the Wynn family, Patty and Jay Baker and Sandi and Tom Moran held an event Wednesday night on the site as they prepare for construction to begin on the venue. We'll be following its progress in the Naples Daily News.

As the idea for the Marriott was hatched, developers had envisioned a 9,000-square foot restaurant on the first floor, along with a parking garage and a dozen residential condos. But with traffic concerns, that's been scratched.

However, Naples architect Matthew Kragh has drawn features that will be open to the public.

"There's a coffee shop on the ground level of the hotel. We anticipate people having coffee, being there, riding their bikes, and that being a little bit of a hub," Kragh said.  "On the third floor is a dynamic little hotel restaurant component that looks out over an open air rooftop pool area that's actually on the second floor. So the pool is on top of the second floor."

And while not within the hotel itself, a 9,115-square-foot restaurant by developers is slated a few hundred feet away, along with a second 5,890-square foot structure that could also be an eatery, Kragh said.

"There are two commercial buildings, one-story neighborhood-type commercial buildings," he said. "We have a shell building designed at this point."

South Carolina-based OTO Development, which has a 20-year brand agreement with Marriott for the hotel property, is a lead on the enterprise that the founder described as "truly remarkable gateway into your community."

"We have projects underway on the beach of Panama City Beach, Bethesda, Maryland and St. Pete Beach," OTO CEO Corry Oakes said. "We're continuing to work on (proposals) right at one of the main gates of Fenway in Boston and Daly City, which is a suburb out in San Francisco."

The company recently finished a similar 156-room undertaking on the Potomac River that took about 18 months from groundbreaking to completion.

Utopia? A monolith? Walgreens?

But not everyone is all in on the L-shaped complex wedged between Goodlette and the Naples Armature Works to its west. That's playing a role in a configuration that has waste trucks, delivery trucks, laundry trucks and other vehicles converging with everyone else.

"There should be a concrete plan on upgrading the roundabout and making it in compliance with today's standards," said planning board member Chae duPont, a lawyer and mortgage broker who has seen the design plans. "You have this utopia (that's) described as people coming on their bikes and having brunch, stopping for a coffee. In the midst of that, you have trucks barreling up and down, up and down this utopia, picking up trash. I've never seen that on a development, and I can't imagine how that's going to work."

Mayor Teresa Heitmann and council member Mike McCabe have also expressed concerns related to what's proposed, ahead of a key May 5 vote.

And then there's the whole beauty is in the eye of the beholder thing.

"We're mixing the building façade elements up with stone and stucco and the dark bronze," Kragh, the architect, said. "Very eclectic, old Florida. We're calling this very British West Indies."

Here's a least a couple of reviews:

"It's beautiful as far as the look at the corner of Fifth and Goodlette. It's very handsome," duPont said. "But I believe the look of the building, as you travel from Fifth as you travel up Goodlette-Frank, it looks like a horizontal monolith."

Planning Advisory Board Chairman Thomas McCann disagrees.

"It was not a monolith, at least from what I saw," McCann said. "I thought it was a very interesting, differentiated façade along Goodlette-Frank."

If this project goes by the wayside like others previously proposed for this site, the alternative may not be appetizing for some, except for those OK with staring at bright red colors while stuck in traffic.

"We're back to the Walgreens scenario," Passidomo said.

Based at the Naples Daily News, Columnist Phil Fernandez (pfernandez@gannett.com) writes In the Know as part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. Support Democracy and subscribe to a newspaper.