St. Pete Beach hotel operator reconsiders big project after impromptu visit from mayor
By Eric Snider
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: May 7, 2015

Robert Czyczczon had already submitted plans to St. Pete Beach city hall to renovate his two-story, 39-room Plaza Beach Resort. Then Mayor Maria Lowe came calling, reporter in tow, on Wednesday morning.

Czyczczon (pronounced Say-ZONN) had put on hold his more ambitious plan, which he submitted last July: to scrape the existing old building and erect a new 66-unit condo-hotel that would rise as high as eight floors.

After chatting with the mayor at a table under a thatched roof, he's hit the pause button on reno and is reconsidering the redevelopment.

These are the sorts of things that tend to happen on St. Pete Beach, which had been locked in a 15-year development holding pattern until a hard-won comprehensive plan was ratified in March.

The community was burdened by an ongoing dispute that, while vastly complicated, essentially pitted those in favor of aggressive development against those wanting to maintain sleepy St. Pete Beach.

Lowe, who is a year into her three-year term, refers to the hostility as a "Hatfields-and-McCoys” scenario. In all, St. Pete Beach suffered through a decade-and-a-half beset by myriad lawsuits and acrimony.

While raw feelings may remain, the new comprehensive plan allows operators like Czyczczon to move forward.

He stopped short of committing to the grander project after such a brief meeting with the mayor, but said, "This has got me riled up, got me excited again.”

At issue was room size. In order to make the new project viable, he needed extra square footage per two-bedroom unit, and last year got a variance increasing it. But his impression was that a court ruling had voided that variance.

That's when his strategy switched to renovation. He'd revisit the condo-hotel concept in "five years or so," Czyczczon said.

Then Mayor Lowe piped up: "But your variance stands; you can still have your [extra square feet].”

"Really?” Czyczczon responded, his eyes widening, as a whiff of suntan lotion wafted by the table.

A classic a-ha moment. (He literally nodded slowly and said, "ahhhh.”)

Mayor Lowe beamed. "Oh, you've got to do it, Robert,” she cajoled, then turned to the reporter. "I wanted this to be the first project to result from the comp plan because it's so classy. I think it's a great example of what both sides [of the development dispute] wanted.”

Czyczczon said the Plaza Beach Resort works "as is, but it's difficult because there are so many issues with an older building. There's a lot of upkeep.”

With condo-hotels, people own individual units and get a certain amount of time - usually two or four weeks - to spend in them. For the rest of the year the units are used as hotel rooms, and the owners get a percentage of the revenue.

Czyczczon couldn't recall how much the condo-hotel project will cost, but even last year he had lenders eager to provide financing and contractors hot to build it.

As Mayor Lowe drove away in her pickup truck, she grinned broadly about the serendipitous encounter. "I'm glad we stopped by, to say the least,” she said. "There are such layers of complexity on St. Pete Beach, it makes for an uncertain business environment.”

Eric Snider is a reporter for the Tampa Bay Business Journal.