After delays, Cordova Inn expansion to open later this year
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jan 17, 2024

The developer behind the expansion of the historic Cordova Inn in downtown St. Petersburg says they intend to open by the end of the year after a series of delays.

New Hotel Collection founder and CEO Tommy Del Zoppo told the Tampa Bay Business Journal that the group’s low acquisition cost for the property has helped them endure the rapidly shifting market.

NHC purchased the Cordova Inn in December 2020 for $3 million. With rising interest rates and ongoing supply chain issues, the group faced unprecedented hurdles. The development team includes Place Architecture.

The group will add a building beside the historic hotel and have a Zen garden in between.

“Our original timeline [for completion] was for October, and that will slip a little bit, but it’ll be within ’24,” Del Zoppo said. “We’ll roll the hotel open. It’s the best thing to do because we have the Cordova Inn beside it operating, and we have the ability to do that. We’ll open a floor, make sure everything is working and go up floor-by-floor.”

He said things are moving “very quickly” now. They are ordering furniture for the rooms and working on the second floor of the new building, which will feature 65 new rooms.

Del Zoppo said he believes two black swan events in the past few years led to a development market no one could have anticipated. The Federal Reserve rapidly raised interest rates. As that happened, NHC was attempting to secure financing for the hotel, which he said was like “trying to nail Jell-O to a wall.” Two days before closing, their original financing fell through.

The rapid increase in construction costs, especially concrete, altered their budget.

When they first purchased the hotel in 2020, Del Zoppo said observers “thought they were crazy” for investing in a historic structure in an urban area. The city’s support for the St. Pete Pier, the continued influx of residents and visitors and a plethora of cultural assets gave Del Zoppo confidence they were making the right choice.

“I’m not saying we knew what was going to happen, but we certainly knew by looking in front of us what was going on,” Del Zoppo said. “The city was getting younger, people were visiting more, everything was there.”

The next priority for the group is finding a restaurateur to operate the space on the ground floor of the new building. NHC has interviewed multiple people, and Del Zoppo said they hope to select someone who will bring a unique and quality atmosphere to the area — creating a concept that will become an institution in the city.

NHC just opened the second location of The Scott, the coffee bar at the Cordova Inn, at the Harbourside Resort in Indian Rocks Beach. The coffee bar features coffee from St. Pete-based Hogg Batch Experimental Coffee Roasters. It opened in the renovated Cordova Inn in 2021.

In addition to Cordova Inn and Harbourside Resort, NHC owns the Beachside Resort in Indian Shores and the Central Hotel in Sevierville, Tennessee.