The development team planning a luxury hotel and condos across from Orlando’s iconic Lake Eola bandshell said they designed the 37-story tower to be respectful of the historic St. George Orthodox Church next door. Still, it didn’t stop the pastor or members of the congregation from speaking out against it Thursday during a courtesy review by the city’s Appearance Review Board.
Father John Hamatia, who has led the church for 53 years, said the massive tower would overwhelm the gold-domed church, which has local, state and national landmark status. “That’s a huge building.”
Hamatia said he doesn’t object to the site being developed, as long as it complements the historic neighborhood. “I have committed my whole life to this building; I do have a very personal stake in what goes in next to it,” he said. “I’d like to see something that really accentuates the skyview of the city.”
The .63-acre lot at 170 E Washington St. was previously approved for a seven-story, 155-key Cambria Suites. Land use attorney Jason Searl, with Maynard Nexsen, is working with the owners to rezone the property to accommodate the mixed-use tower with a three-story signature restaurant, a 221-room luxury hotel and 252 branded residences.
“The unique and first-to-market feature of this will be the branded residences,” Searl said
ARB members praised the architecture and design of the modern building. But Executive Director Richard Forbes requested several changes, including more screening of the parking garage ramp and changes to the southeast corner of the parking podium.
The original proposal from Kobi Karp Architecture & Design showed the three-story restaurant space recessed to preserve “visual openness along the street and intentionally exposing the church’s historic façade and stained-glass windows,” according to the submittal. But church members and city staff felt the parking garage was too close to the historic structure. Searl said that after several conversations, the developer agreed to carve out the southeast corner to the first three levels of the garage, and at Thursday’s meeting, he said they would add a fourth deck to the corner carve-out. The design change will eliminate eight parking spaces.
“We want to make sure we have as visually minimal impacts on the church as possible,” Searl said. ARB Director Richard Forbes suggested the carve-out should extend to all six levels of the parking garage to “give the church a bit more breathing room, so to speak.” But Searle said that would require a total redesign of the hotel’s amenity deck, which is on the roof of the garage.
“We believe that’s an overcorrect, respectfully,” he said, noting that the modification would raise the height of the corner carve-out from the initial 30 feet to 68 feet, which is 8 feet taller than the roof of the church.
The ARB members agreed. Briana Johnson and Deron Edge both said the carve-outs were sufficient. “The proposed solution is adequate and respectful to the church,” Edge said. “I really think this is pretty nice.”
Rachel Castleberry, representing the church, said the new tower is simply too tall and too modern for the neighborhood. “The applicant originally presented concepts for a much smaller, more modest building, and this dramatic increase in height, massing, and intensity represents a major change that’s incompatible with the historic landmark, the entire Lake Eola neighborhood, and the park context,” she said. “No offense, but it creates a jarring visual conflict instead of a compatible, contextual design.”
Searl worked with the owners to win approvals for the smaller Cambria Suites zoning back in 2019, but the project fell apart during COVID. After that, he said the capital markets no longer favor stand-alone hotels in Central Business Districts.
Luxury hotels with branded residences are all the rage across South Florida and in markets like Tampa, which has Ritz-Carlton, Edition by Marriott and Pendry hotels — all with condos on the upper floors. In St. Petersburg, construction is underway on the 50-story Waldorf Astoria Residences, where the penthouse unit sold last summer for $27 million.
Searl said even though the developer is seeking a similar 5-star brand, he doesn’t see the need to incorporate a great deal of meeting or event space in the hotel. “The Bohemian has it, as does Aloft,” he said. “The Aloft is underground. It doesn’t get a ton of business because of the amount of convention space we have down by the resorts. And the Waldorf Astoria-type guests that would have a destination wedding are going to go to those types of places.”
The zoning is scheduled to go to the Municipal Planning Board in June.
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