Site work began at the end of August for The Perry Hotel Naples, a seven-story hotel targeted to open in the first quarter of 2024 next to The Bay House restaurant in North Naples.
“The Perry Hotel Naples will offer 160 rooms with world–class amenities, including distinctive food and beverage venues, ground–level and rooftop pools and a seventh-floor open–air rooftop bar and 75-seat restaurant with unmatched panoramic Gulf of Mexico views,” said Lee Rekas, vice president of sales and marketing. “The hotel will face the Cocohatchee River with direct channel access to the Gulf of Mexico and Wiggins State Park and a riverwalk through its nature conservation area to a waterfront pier and eight–slip marina for watersports and excursions.”
FOD Perry Naples LLC of Key West purchased the 6.3 acres of vacant commercial property at 805 Walkerbilt Road last August for $4.8 million from Bay House Campus LLC, the previous owners of The Bay House who originally planned a boutique hotel on that land years ago.
The developer of the new hotel, FOD Capital, is a family office investment fund headquartered in Key West, where it has another hotel and marina on Stock Island. While this is the firm’s first development project in the Naples area, FOD launched The Perry Hotel Key West in 2017 with 100 rooms, more than 220 boat slips, and three food and beverage outlets, as well as commercial and event space.
“Beginning with The Perry Key West and now expanding to Naples, we pride ourselves on our brand’s exceptional service, diverse guest offerings and relaxed, localized approach–all qualities that we believe will fit this market perfectly,” said Matthew Strunk, FOD’s director of accounting and finance.
The hotel will feature a modern industrial design that highlights local characteristics with a two-story lobby, full-service reception center, mixed-use library, corporate meeting space, fitness gym and coffee bar. The ground-level outdoor pool and sunbathing patio will feature a quick-service tapas restaurant. Atop the hotel will be an upscale 75-seat breakfast, brunch and lunch restaurant with an adjoining outdoor wine and cocktail bar, both of which will welcome hotel guests as well as local residents and visitors, Rekas said.
Most of the hotel’s guestrooms will have private balconies while a three-story parking garage will adjoin the hotel, site development plans show. The Perry Hotel Naples will not have a national brand affiliation, Rekas said.
Site clearing work by Lower Keys-based Marino Construction Group can be seen from the U.S. 41 bridge over the Cocohatchee. The 118,845-square-foot hotel property will have access points and entrances next to Riverbend Center off U.S. 41 and next to The Bay House entrance off Walkerbilt Road, less than 2,000 feet north of Immokalee Road.
For years, the acreage was owned by Edward Negley and Peter Tierney, who also owned The Bay House, which they sold in early 2021 to Phelan Family Brands. In 2015, the land adjacent to the longtime restaurant was planned to be developed into Reverie Hall, a high-end wedding venue with a boutique hotel, private club, chapel and cooking school. But those plans were scrapped years ago
“When we sold The Bay House, we simultaneously put a deal together to sell the land where the hotel is,” said Tierney, who approached FOD Capital about purchasing the property. “We developed a relationship with them and sought them out because of their style and being a little boutique hotel and being well funded. I’m happy we were able to work out a deal with them.”
Because the original hotel planned there would have been much smaller than The Perry Hotel Naples, Tierney worked for months last year to get the property rezoned to its original designation of 160 rooms for FOD. “We delivered to them basically a buildable site. It was a clean package,” he said.
With Collier County growing at an unprecedented pace, FOD managing director Mike Raymond said his team is excited to extend The Perry’s elevated hospitality from the Keys into the Naples market. “We are building The Perry Hotel Naples to be a destination home for those who love this area as much as we do, and we cannot wait to open our doors,” Raymond said.
