TAMPA, Florida—Spirides Hotel Finance Company has provided, and the borrower has closed, $14 million in construction-to-permanent mortgage financing from a Midwest-headquartered bank to finance the development of a lodging facility in Dunedin, Florida, for players of the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Club. Florida is well known for its multiple professional baseball Spring training facilities. After building in Dunedin its Player Development Complex training facility, the Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Club had been searching for nearby consolidated quality housing for their major and minor league players year round as they rotate through for training when Dunedin officials introduced Toronto Blue Jays officials to Doug Anderson, a Dunedin-based developer and general contractor, who orchestrated a deal between all parties.
This new lodging facility will have 90 guestrooms with balconies built in two separate locations and in two phases within Dunedin. Each location will have a building outfitted with finishes, furnishings, security, and technology, as well as standard amenities such as a swimming pool, meeting rooms, dining areas, laundry, and a fitness center. Parking will be on the ground floor with two stories of lodging accommodations situated above. Phase 1, the smaller of the two locations, known as Grant Street Inn, began construction earlier this year. Phase 2, comprised of 68 units located on Causeway Boulevard, will begin construction immediately and be known as the J Hotel. Financing for both phases was provided by Spirides Hotel Finance Company.
The buildings will incorporate a coastal design scheme and will blend into the surrounding ecology of Dunedin, which was planned by Dunedin-based SDG Architecture, the project architect and designer. Each building will be solar-powered and constructed by using fortified ICF concrete. Strand Hospitality Services of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, will manage the day-to-day operations of this hotel.
“After three years that included the COVID-19 pandemic and a real estate site change and subsequent building redesign, we at Spirides Hotel Finance Company are very pleased to have provided the financing for such a unique hotel development project made possible through extensive public-private collaboration. The extremely high level of community, municipal, and stakeholder cooperation, communication, and collaboration in favor of this project that I have witnessed here in Dunedin has been truly remarkable and inspiring,” says Harry G. Spirides, president of Spirides Hotel Finance Company. “Another nice thing about this new hotel is that some of these luxurious guestrooms will be made available to the public for nightly or weekly rental.”
Based in Tampa, Florida, Spirides Hotel Finance Company provides mortgages and loans to hotel owners and developers across the United States for ground-up construction, acquisition, debt refinancing, and renovation projects. Members of the Spirides family have owned, operated, developed, and advised hotels and restaurants for 100 years, since the 1920s. Harry G. Spirides is a former owner and operator of a 205-room, full-service, beach resort hotel for over 20 years.
