When the previous owners of a vacant, 6-acre parcel adjacent to their Bay House Restaurant in North Naples decided a few years ago to sell both properties, they wanted their legacy to be distinct and apart from big brands that tend to dominate the market.
The end result of that goal — The Perry Hotel Naples at 12155 Tamiami Trail N. — opened Jan. 12 with a soft launch following about four years of planning, development and construction for an investment of about $80 million.
Owner Michael Raymond is reveling in the uniqueness of the 160-room boutique hotel’s offerings, including pools on both the ground floor and the seventh-floor rooftop, plus a rooftop Cantonese restaurant called Tigress and an adjacent bar called Easy Tiger that has views of the Cocohatchee River below.
“When you stay at a four-star Marriott, you know what you’re going to get, OK?” Raymond said. “Here, we think there’s the challenge to elevate above that. We think we have. We’re four-and-a-half stars on Expedia. We look at it more as an opportunity than a challenge.
“We’re pretty proud of the creativity that the hotel exhibits.”
There’s a maritime theme inside, with authentic, antique anchors that were salvaged, adorning the wall behind the check-in desk.
Construction will begin soon on a nine-slip boat dock that will have shuttle rides for hotel guests to their choice of Barefoot Beach or Wiggins Pass.
A ground floor lobby has novels and sports biographies lining the shelves and Ernest Hemingway photographs hanging on the walls, which isn’t by accident.
The themes were borrowed from The Perry Hotel on Stock Island, adjacent to Key West, where Hemingway once lived and where Raymond joined the ownership group of the original Perry Hotel 19 years ago. After the primary owner died in 2022, the original hotel sold, but Raymond retained rights to the brand name for future expansion.
Raymond, a corporate lawyer for more than 30 years, gravitated to the hospitality business, as well. He said he did not realize that expansion would happen so soon.
“We weren’t actively looking for another location for The Perry,” Raymond said. “We were actually solicited to take a look at this property by the owners of this property. They came down to Key West, and they liked what they experienced down there. And they said, ‘Hey, come on up, take a look at this. We’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse.’”
“They really wanted it to be distinctive.”
Raymond’s FOD Capital bought the 6 acres for $4.8 million in 2021 from Bay House Campus LLC.
Phelan Family Brands, a Naples-based ownership group, bought the adjacent Bay House restaurant at about the same time.
“They decided they did not want to invite a flag, like a Marriott, a Hilton, Hyatt, to occupy this property,” Raymond said.
The Perry Hotel has a ground floor coffee shop and a gift shop Elsie in Naples run by Elsie Mendez.
Most of the rooms have balconies overlooking the river. Room rates start at $600 during tourist season and $400 during the offseason.
Tigress restaurant serves Cantonese cuisine with a menu made by Chef Dale Talde, who has been featured on the program “Top Chef.” The menu includes Peking duck, wok-fried lobster and dim sum.
Easy Tiger, the adjacent bar, has cocktails crafted by mixologist Lynnette Marrero, a James Beard Award winner. The bar features a wall mural drawn by artist Richie Blanko.
The bar and restaurant are open to the public.
The rooms and the ground floor lobby area each carry over looks similar to the original Perry Hotel on Stock Island, Raymond said, but the two hotels also each have something different to offer.
“The lobby area, the two-story lobby area, with the light industrial, concrete, mixed with different textures and color schemes — that design element is similar to what we did in Key West, which was an award-winning design,” Raymond said. “And it’s good to go with what you know.”
