St. Pete Beach hotel to be torn down, rebuilt as condo-hotel
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Oct 5, 2015

The tired, blue-and-yellow-painted Plaza Beach Resort on St. Pete Beach could be demolished to make way for a swanky condo-hotel high rise.

Robert Czyszczon, the property's owner and general manager, said Monday that he is moving forward with plans to build a 66-unit, nine-story condo hotel on his family's property at 4506 Gulf Blvd. Like residential condominiums, each unit in the condo-hotel is individually owned, and Czyszczon's family will manage the property.

He plans to submit the project to the City of St. Pete Beach on Oct. 28, one month after the community meeting he held on Sept. 28. The city has to approve those plans, he said, before he'll bring in a structural engineer to determine construction costs and the price of each unit. The one bedroom units will be 760 square feet; the two-bedroom units will be 870 square feet.

Czyszczon had originally filed plans with the city in July 2014, but the project is much easier now, thanks to the city's new comprehensive plan.

He said he is yet to select a financing partner or general contractor. Ideally, all 66 units will be presold, with hard deposits, before he breaks ground. If the plans are approved by the city and the units sell, Czyszczon said the project could break ground in summer 2016 with an estimated two-year construction period.

Guests with reservations during the construction period will be transferred to one of the family's other nearby properties: Bayview Plaza Waterfront Resort or Bay Palms Waterfront Resort Hotel and Marina.

The Plaza Beach Resort usually sees occupancy percentage rates in the low 80s or upper 70s, and average daily room rates of $115 to $120.

"So we do very well," Czyszczon said. "And we're hoping to continue at if not even exceed those numbers."

Ashley Gurbal Kritzer is a reporter for the Tampa Bay Business Journal.