Local officials are bigger Jimmy Buffett fans after the city of Newport approved a development agreement for a $140 million hotel project at Newport on the Levee.
While construction won’t begin before 2024, developers hope to build a Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville Resort on an empty lot near the closed IMAX theater to anchor the local lifestyle center. Local officials say a hotel has long been sought for the site, but past projects have fallen through – the last amid the national 2008 financial crisis just before the Great Recession.
"It completes the Levee," Newport City Manager Thomas Fromme told The Enquirer, adding "It is definitely going to be a destination unto itself."
Local tourism officials said the project could benefit the Greater Cincinnati metro area.
“It’s a big victory for our region,” Julie Calvert, CEO of Visit Cincy told The Enquirer, noting the Margaritaville would be the first of its kind in the Tri-State area. She predicted the hotel brand would be a solid draw for leisure travelers from nearby metro areas, such as Dayton, Columbus and Indianapolis. “It’s a good, solid leisure hotel brand that would help us target those travelers. It’s great for families and some business travelers.”
Besides the hotel with a rooftop pool, plans include three Margaritaville-branded restaurants and a 2,000-square-foot, covered patio area to host events overlooking the Ohio River and downtown Cincinnati on the site located next to the Taylor-Southgate Bridge.
Newport on the Levee-owner North American Properties first approached the city about the resort just over a year ago, though the company has been working on a hotel concept since they bought Newport on the Levee in 2018, Fromme said.
Tim Perry, the managing partner of North American Properties, told The Enquirer the project is still in early development and still making arrangements, but are “committed to making this a reality.” He added the hotel would build on Newport on the Levee’s already broad appeal of its existing mix of bars, restaurants and music venues along with the family-friendly Newport Aquarium.
“The scale, event space, and one-of-a-kind features like a rooftop ‘It’s 5 o'Clock Somewhere’ (a Margaritaville bar concept) will be unparalleled in the market,” Perry said. “There is simply no comparison for that critical mass of entertainment and lifestyle hospitality.”
Jim Stormont, of the Atlanta-based Stormont Hospitality Group, told Newport commissioners one of the other Margaritaville-branded eateries will be 'A License to Chill Bar.' He added the resort would create 200 local jobs.
Margaritaville Hotels & Resorts' closest current hotel is in Nashville and it has three other sites in Tennessee, according to its website. The brand boasts nearly two dozen locations mostly in the U.S. Sun Belt and the Caribbean. The company also has five other bar and restaurant concepts besides its namesake brand, including LandShark Bar & Grill, JWB (James William Buffett) Prime Steak and Seafood and JWB Grill.
Officials at Margaritaville promised further details for the project “once we have them,” but otherwise declined to discuss their future plans.
Newport Mayor Tom Guidugli Jr. said Newport on the Levee has been forced to reinvent itself since the decline of brick-and-mortar retail stores. "It's a piece of the puzzle," Guidugli said.
He said the size of the lot may pose a challenge to the developers because they don't have the landmass for multiple swimming pools and outdoor facilities. "It's gonna have to be unique," the mayor said.
The project will partially be funded by an existing $200 million in industrial revenue bonds issued when North American Properties bought the levee in 2018, Richard D. Spoor, an attorney representing the developers, told commissioners.
Spoor said North American Properties used $80 million of those bonds to buy and make basic improvements to Newport on the Levee. The remaining $120 million will help fund the resort. The city has no obligations to make payments on those bonds and they don't go through the city's general fund, the city manager said.
These bonds essentially help developers with financing and offer something similar to a tax abatement, where the developer makes a negotiated "payment in lieu of taxes," he added. Newport on the Levee should be back on the tax rolls sometime in 2049 followed by the resort in 2054 if a timeline extension to the bonds is approved for the project.
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