Epicurean hotel developer breaks ground on new Anna Maria Island resort
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Oct 16, 2015

If the performance of the Mainsail Beach Inn is any indication, the Waterline Marina Resort & Beach club will be a very successful hospitality property, its developer said.

Mainsail Lodging & Development, based in Tampa, on Thursday broke ground on the 37-unit, $30 million resort on Anna Maria Island's Holmes Beach, at at 5325 Marina Drive. The property faces the bay and Sunshine Skyway Bridge. It will include a 50-slip marina, 2,000 square feet of meeting space, a signature restaurant and bar and a resort-style swimming pool with an oversized sun deck that extends into the marina. Each of the 37 units includes two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen. Guests will be able to take electric carts across the island to the Beach Inn property, where Mainsail is planning to build a new club house facing the Gulf.

The company has owned both Beach Inn and the Waterline's bayfront site since 2009, when it purchased the note on both properties from Mercantile Bank. Mainsail was ready to move forward with new development by 2013, when the real estate market was starting to improve. Navigating the City of Holmes Beach development process took nearly two years. Mainsail is projecting a 12-month construction period.

Beach Inn commands rates $500 to $600 per night during tourist season. While the initial projections for Waterline are a bit lower than that - it's on the bay, after all, not the beach - Mainsail is still expecting the resort to be a top performer, President Joe Collier said.

Beyond tourists, Collier said he foresees the property drawing visitors from the region during the summer and hosting a steady stream of corporate retreat traffic from Tampa.

"We think our numbers are actually conservative," he said. "I think this is going to be a good market for us."

Mainsail is the developer and owner behind Epicurean Hotel in South Tampa, which opened in 2013.

"There may be a few things we'll glean off the Epicurean," Collier said, "but this is really a different product in a different market."

Like Epicurean and Scrub Island Resort, Spa & Marina in the British Virgin Islands, the Waterline will operate under Marriott International Inc.'s Autograph collection, which Collier describes as a "non-flag flag." It's still part of Marriott's rewards program, but feels more like a boutique property.

"You have the horsepower of Marriott, but you're allowed to be as independent as you want to be," he said.

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