A proposed 18-unit boutique hotel with a restaurant received unanimous final design approval Jan. 22 by the Naples Design Review Board.
The three-story, 30,000-square-foot Aquarius Hotel is proposed to be built at 590 Ninth St. N. at the longtime location of the one-story retail strip that is home to Liki Tiki BBQ restaurant, Pastrami Dan’s sandwich shop and Tropical Smoothie Cafe.
The mixed-used redevelopment project will include 6,486 square feet of commercial use — including the 4,646-square-foot Aqua restaurant with outdoor dining — on the ground floor facing U.S. 41 and Sixth Avenue North. The luxury hotel will include nine units on the second floor and nine on the third floor with a swimming pool and an amenity deck that includes an outdoor bar on the second floor. At-grade parking will be provided under the building.
“The quality and appearance of the proposed three-story mixed-use development is consistent and compatible with the city of Naples downtown urban design aesthetic along the street frontage. The plans provided for final review reflect a contemporary design,” according to the project’s architect, Naples-based MHK Architecture.
“One of the things that we felt was important from the transient lodging perspective is that it’s so close to the hospital [Naple Comprehensive Health Downtown],” said MHK representative Mark McLean in presenting the project to the Design Review Board. “These aren’t your traditional 500-square-foot hotel rooms. The smallest rooms that we have in this building are 800 square feet. So, they’re nice, large, one-bedroom rooms, if someone’s here visiting someone who may be in the hospital for a short order of time or even a lengthy time, these could be nice, bigger spaces.”
Although Design Review Board member Douglas Haughey thinks the hotel project looks fine, he offered a blanket comment about what he has noticed is a recent redundancy in the form, design and look of redevelopment projects between Fifth Avenue South and Seventh Avenue North in downtown Naples.
“We’re starting to see a lot of similarity in their look and feel,” Haughey said. “I feel if we have too many of these projects come in that are the same way, we’re going to lose a lot of architectural interest in the town and that look and feel that really makes Naples unique.”
DRB member Chae duPont expressed happiness with the plans for the proposed hotel building. “I really like the building. I love the lightness of it,” she said. “The name, Aqua, Aquarius, I think that’s great. The font is beautiful. And I love the fact that it’s a local family that we’ve seen an evolution of the success of this family. Everything that they’re doing is adding to the community, and that’s really nice to see that isn’t from some out-of-town group coming in. So, I’m very happy with that and can see how this could be a legacy project.”
The building and property are owned by Gordon and Nancy Stojkoski, who also own Liki Tiki BBQ and the local Aqua steak and seafood restaurants. The $30 million hotel project isn’t going to happen overnight, Gordon Stojkoski said.
“It’s going to take about three months from today for the actual building permit to be issued,” he said. “Once the building permit is issued, you pay for the permit and then you have to break ground within a year after that. It’s not going to happen any sooner than six or eight months.”
So, the existing businesses in that four-unit retail strip will be operating there for at least another eight months,” Stojkoski said.
That includes, of course, the landmark Pastrami Dan’s, which is in its 50th season. So, folks still have months to enjoy the eatery’s famous pastrami sandwiches and tacos.
The two-year hotel project represents a milestone moment for Stojkoski.
“I’ve been working since I’ve been 14 years old in the hospitality/restaurant business, and to get to this point in my career that I can build something like this for my family. This is a dream come true,” he said. “Everybody works their entire life to get somewhere, and this is it to have a facility like this a couple of blocks from Fifth Avenue and eight blocks from the Gulf of Mexico.”