New Hotel

A Sneak Preview of the Brand-New Westin Sarasota

The Westin Sarasota opens Friday.

Edited by Susan Burns July 25, 2017

A living wall of greenery greets visitors at the entrance. The hotel’s color palette is inspired by the beach: soft sands and camel shades and a variety of blues from pale sky to cobalt. Mahogany trim continues the earthy vibe.

The lobby offers a variety of seating areas, a small business conference room equipped for teleconferencing and a grab-and-go snack room with “juiceristas” who will blend fresh beet and other fruits and vegetables for healthy to-go beverages.

The lobby bar.

Still unwrapping: The lobby opens to a huge terrace with fire and water features overlooking the bayfront. In nice weather, the wall of sliding glass doors can vanish, making the lobby and terrace one expansive space.

Evoq, the Westin’s lobby floor restaurant, will be open to the public.

The Spa & Salon at Westin is for guests and locals. Shown here: a relaxation pod.

A view of the lap pool also shows that the pool deck and the placement of seating areas were still a work in progress on this cloudy afternoon.

Still being finished: the rooftop bar.

Rooftop view of the downtown bayfront.

The Westin and The Vue are pet friendly; that green patch below is for pooches.

The Westin Sarasota has a 5,600-square-foot ballroom that accommodates 700 in a classroom-type set-up or 400 for a sit-down event. Several small meeting rooms are adjacent.

The living room of the 14th floor Presidential Suite that offers views of the bay and downtown from three sides.

The 255-room Westin Sarasota is finally throwing open the doors this Friday, July 28. It’s been a long time coming.

Palm Beach County-based Kolter Group broke ground almost three years ago on this 18-story Marriott hotel (its first full-service hotel) at the corner of North Tamiami Trail and Gulfstream Avenue. It is next door to its twin sister, The Vue, a 141-unit luxury condominium, also being developed by Kolter, which is nearing completion.

Plenty of locals griped that the scale of these 18-story towers right up against U.S. 41 in downtown Sarasota is changing the complexion of their small city into something unrecognizable. A sneak preview tour left no doubt. This is an exciting, sophisticated, modern urban hotel that would fit perfectly in Miami Beach. The hotel opens for room reservations (depending on season, rates will range from $199 to $399 a night, right between Hyatt Sarasota and Ritz-Carlton rates), and the public is invited to experience the lobby bar, the restaurant Evoq (Westin wants this to be one of the top restaurant picks for locals in town) and the rooftop bar. Already, weddings and business groups are booking. Jim Donovan, the Westin’s director of sales and marketing, anticipates that 45 percent of the Westin’s business will be group and convention; the remainder will be business and leisure travelers. Even though the hotel was filled with workers completing last-minute tasks, Donovan found time for a quick tour.

Tourism, Hospitality, Hotels, Westin, Vue Sarasota Bay, Biz Daily

Show Comments