Why Marco Island's Newest Waterfront Hotel Didn't Need City Council This Time

At 12:55 a.m. on Sept. 11, after a City Council meeting that started on Sept. 10 and ran seven and a half hours, Marco Island's councilors cast the last of three votes that let Rose Marina move ahead with a 200-seat restaurant over Factory Bay. According to the Marco Eagle's account of the meeting, approval took two years, nine hours of Planning Board meetings and that one overnight Council session.

Six days earlier, a new 45-room condo-hotel with its own 45-slip marina on the southeastern end of the island got final approval for its site plan in one Planning Board meeting, with no Council vote required.

Across all three waterfront proposals in front of the city this season, what decided how far each one had to go was the number of exceptions it asked for, not its size or how much public attention it drew. The Hilton expansion asks for the most, and it is also the one still undecided.

Three Projects, Three Paths

Walker's Cay Asked for Nothing Unusual

Walker's Cay will sit on almost two acres on the west side of the Stan Gober Memorial Bridge. The plan is two levels of parking with five floors above. The owner is Naples-based Maritime Acquisitions LLC, whose title manager is islander Jim Walker. Its website describes a pet-friendly hotel with indoor and outdoor dining, a pool, a spa and salon, a charter tour boat and a ship store.

Marco Island Senior Planner Mary Holden told the Marco Eagle why the Sept. 4 vote was final. The plan needed no variances, and every use in it is already permitted under the city's code. This year, a 4–1 Planning Board vote was the only approval it needed. The project has been through Council before. The Marco Eagle reports that in 2023, Council voted 5–2 to overturn a denial by the city's site development plan committee and let Walker's Cay move forward, on the condition that it have no residential use.

The main debate at that meeting was about who would stay there. Planning Board members and some residents who spoke worried the hotel could turn into another condo building with long-term residents. That matters on an island whose charter limits density. The island already has two condo-hotels, Marco Beach Ocean Resort and the Old Marco Inn & Suites, and both are zoned to allow long-term residence. The commercial zoning on the Walker's Cay site does not allow it. Bob Mulhere of Bowman Consulting, speaking for the developers, said, "My client is committed to operating as a hotel."

No construction start or opening date has been announced.

Rose Marina's Three Votes Settled Less Than the Room Wanted

Rose Marina has been on Bald Eagle Drive since 1969. Its 200-seat restaurant was never the disputed part, because a restaurant is a permitted use under the marina's C-5 zoning. The project still went to Council because the site plan the Planning Board approved 5–2 in July depended on three more items. Those were a garbage and landscaping variance, a conditional-use permit for boat storage and a variance to reconfigure the docks.

Each passed 4–2. Chairman Darrin Palumbo, Vice Chairman Rene Champagne and councilors Deb Henry and Kevin Dohm voted yes, and councilors Tamara Goehler and Stephen Gray voted no.

Most of the public comment was about passenger ships, which were not on the agenda. The Marco Eagle reported that the tourist vessels using the privately owned marina have grown larger and come more often. The marina's current traffic includes the Marco Island Princess, at 96 feet and up to 100 passengers, and the Key West Express, at 155 to 170 feet and up to 500 passengers. American Cruise Lines ships of 243 to 248 feet also stop on Key West itineraries, each carrying up to 130 passengers.

The rule that allows larger ships dates to 2003, when that year's Council set the 100-foot, 100-passenger standard, according to land-use attorney Zach Lombardo. Palumbo described the vote this way: "They didn't break any rules; we just like the rules we didn't change." Goehler said she has "nothing against Rose Marina" and would visit the restaurant, but opposed the commercial ships on environmental and small-town grounds. Champagne pointed out that voting the items down would have let the marina expand with fewer restrictions.

The approval does come with limits:

• Passenger vessels may not stay overnight at the marina except in severe weather.
• No more than three buses at a time, carrying no more than 150 people, under the site development plan.
• Ships must fit the docks. Lombardo said A Dock is no longer than 362 feet.

One change shows up this winter. The Key West Express announced in August that it would skip Rose Marina this season because of "anticipated dock and parking improvements," and said it hopes to resume service there as soon as possible.

The Hilton Is Asking for a Different Kind of Permission

Rose Marina needed variances within the rules it already had. The Hilton is asking for new rules. Olshan Properties, the New York company that built the resort at 560 S. Collier Blvd. in 1985, wants the site rezoned from Resort Residential to a Planned Unit Development. It also wants to exceed the comprehensive plan's height and density limits. The plan includes a second tower, which Coastal Breeze News reported at 150 feet.

Density is the core of the dispute. Coastal Breeze reported that the current plan allows 16 rooms per acre in the Hilton's zoning area. The Hilton's attorney, Zach Lombardo, the same land-use attorney who represented Rose Marina, argues that the plan sets no unit limit for hotels. On that reading, the resort could reach 60 units per acre and 626 rooms. Planning staff say only a comprehensive plan amendment could allow that. "We are advocating for denial," Holden said at the Sept. 22 hearing.

The Planning Board recommended approval 3–2 on July 31. After nearly three hours on Sept. 22, Council continued the item at Lombardo's request so the resort and staff could work toward a compromise. The Marco Eagle quoted Palumbo on the stakes for the island: "If we don't, the Hilton gets old, it gets outdated, it reduces their rates, becomes, for lack of a better term, a discount hotel, and nobody wants that."

Several beach-side improvements are on the table, though none are secured yet. In August, the Marco Eagle reported that former Councilman Rich Blonna had asked for three things in exchange for his support. They were upgraded public beach access on the Hilton's south side, public showers and restrooms, and free ground-level parking for residents in the new garage. The paper said the Hilton was offering all three. Because Council continued the rezoning without deciding it, those offers are not approved conditions.

A Rule Change Raised From the Dais

The path each project took may itself change. At the Rose Marina meeting, Champagne said he plans to propose that projects "that have community-wide impact," such as the Rose Marina site plan, require City Council review rather than stopping at the Planning Board. The Walker's Cay site plan was approved under the current process, and that approval is final. A rule like Champagne's would decide whether the next project of that kind gets one public vote or two.

The Dates on the Fall Calendar

• Oct. 19: The Hilton rezoning is reported to return to City Council. Coastal Breeze News and the city's meeting schedule list different start times, so check the posted agenda for that day.
• Oct. 24: The Halloween Spooktacular at Mackle Park starts at 4 p.m., according to the city's events calendar.
• Nov. 14–15: The 17th Annual Goodland Holiday Bazaar, run by the Goodland Civic Association, is at MarGood Harbor Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to the Marco Eagle's events roundup.
• Nov. 18: The Marco Island Farmers Market returns to 901 Park Ave. for a season that runs through April 14, 2027.
• Dec. 19: The Christmas Island Style Boat Parade starts at 6 p.m. Boat entries are due Dec. 17.

The Key West Express will not be calling at Rose Marina this winter. Walker's Cay has no construction date yet. The Hilton's answer depends on what Olshan Properties and city staff bring back to Council on Oct. 19.

Waterfront decisions like these affect what nearby homes on Marco Island are worth, sometimes before anything gets built. If you'd like to know how the Rose Marina approval or the Hilton hearing might bear on your own property, Laurie Bellico can walk through it with you privately. Start with an instant home valuation, and we can go from there.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.