8-story Naples hotel passes first hurdle in approval process

An eight-story, dual-brand luxury hotel received unanimous preliminary approval from the Naples Design Review Board, the first hurdle in a yearlong planning process.

The 94-foot-high, 284-room hotel can exceed the city’s 42-foot height limit because it sits on 52 acres of former Collier County property, The Commons, which the city annexed in 1989. Naples accepted the county’s 1980 zoning conditions, including height, and they were affirmed in 2001, when a Collier Circuit Court judge agreed Commonage Corp. had vested rights to construct new buildings as originally approved.

“We are still working through the branding of this hotel with Hilton and Marriott, so we haven’t defined who the brand is yet,” Mark McLean, national director for MHK Architecture, told the DRB.

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