Tampa's West Shore area to get a new luxury hotel in 2018
By Times Staff
Tampa Bay Times
Published: Jun 2, 2016

Tampa's West Shore neighborhood is getting yet another hotel, adding 150 rooms to the 9,000 already in the area.

Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants announced Thursday that it plans to open the Kimpton Tampa Hotel in early 2018. The "luxury lifestyle hotel" will be five stories tall with a rooftop bar, two restaurants, 4,000 square feet of meeting and event space, plus a pool and fitness center.

It will be built at the intersection of O'Brien and Laurel streets.

This is the company's seventh hotel in Florida. Tampa's Giunta Group will own and manage it.

"This signature boutique hotel will be unlike anything else in Tampa, from the rooftop bar and access to the fresh-air piazza, to the design by renowned architect Albert Alfonso, to the one-of-a-kind dining experiences," Giunta Group chief executive Richard S. Giunta said.

The 8-acre property was sold for $3.9 million in March 2015, property records show.

The hotel's main restaurant will be the first in the United States for chef Silvia Baracchi of Tuscany's famous Il Falconiere. According to a statement, the dinner-only restaurant will get food from its own 8-acre portion of a hydroponic farm. Baracchi is also planning to teach cooking classes at the Tampa hotel.

"Like with Epicurean in South Tampa, it's not more of the same," said Bob Morrison, executive director of Hillsborough County Hotel and Motel Association. He noted that the West Shore area's thriving hospitality industry has been a big factor in helping Tampa to compete with cities such as Nashville; Charlotte, N.C.; and Austin, Texas.

"It offers a variety of lodging for all budgets, whether we're talking about business travel, leisure, conventions or group meetings," he said.

Kimpton's other Tampa Bay location is Hotel Zamora in St. Pete Beach.