In August, the former Grand Plaza Hotel in St. Pete Beach, Fla., reopened with a new name and brand identity. The new name and look of the Bellwether Beach Resort is meant to evoke old-fashioned family beach getaways, said Jay Rocha, VP of operations at Benchmark Resorts & Hotels, emphasizing that the project is not merely a renovation, but a full conversion.
Miami-based Gencom acquired the 46-year-old property and the nearby Beachcomber Beach Resort and Hotel for $100 million in early 2019 with plans to reposition both. The new owner brought Benchmark on to manage the properties, and the opportunity to recreate an “iconic” property was too good to pass up, Rocha said. “We just all felt we had to jump in and be a part of the future of St. Pete Beach, but also be able to have one of the most well-known buildings as well.”
Benchmark worked with design team Duncan & Miller out of Dallas to develop a theme for the new hotel. The concept, Rocha said, is meant to be both vintage and family-friendly. While the building dates back to the 1970s, the lobby has midcentury linen furnishings and classic terrazzo tiles, and the walls have vintage artwork from the 1960s. “So as you walk throughout the building, you're going to see the design going back to what that time period would have looked and felt like,” he said. The previous white hues became vivid colors like that of a beach ball.
In the lobby, the reception zones were moved to encourage guests to walk through the full space and interact with the touchpoints and food-and-beverage venues.
The property’s six penthouses, meanwhile, were inspired by the Rat Pack, with classic bar carts prominently displayed. “When you walk into a penthouse, you feel like you're going back in time a little bit,” Rocha said. The remaining guestrooms have “very vibrant colors” in lime green, ocean blue, flamingo pink or a bright orange with stripes meant to evoke the midcentury aesthetic. “Pretty much everything that we've tried to stay true to is—as much as we could—that time period that we felt was the best part of all of our designs,” he said. All of the guestrooms have king beds, including those with double kings.
In addition to the new design, Rocha said the team similarly was focused on making sure the hotel would represent the community. The rotating rooftop restaurant Spinners now serves fish caught by local fishermen, and the grab-and-go coffee shop in the lobby serves fare from local vendors. “One of the things we were hoping to accomplish with this [repositioning] was to be a local hotel, and through that [our goal] was to bring in as many local vendors as we could … and be a part of the community as well,” he said.
BELLWETHER BEACH RESORT
LOCATION
The hotel is on St. Pete Beach, 30 minutes from Tampa along the west coast of the Florida peninsula. The property is a two-hour drive from Orlando International Airport and an approximate four-hour drive from Miami.
OPENING
August 2021
NUMBER OF ROOMS
156
ACTING GENERAL MANAGER
Jay Rocha
WEBSITE
www.bellwetherbeachresort.com
OWNER
Gencom
MANAGEMENT COMPANY
Benchmark Resorts & HotelsOPENING OBSTACLE
Repositioning and rebranding a hotel during a pandemic was not a simple feat, but the team at Bellwether found some creative opportunities in restrictions. When seating capacity had to be cut by 50 percent because of the spacing of the tables, the team decided to try outdoor dining and turned an outdoor observation deck into a rooftop restaurant. “One of the best venues that we have is outdoor seating for our restaurant, which was something that came out of necessity, just trying to keep the restaurant afloat,” Rocha said. The space has proven so popular that Benchmark is adding a chef’s table for cooking demonstrations.