TradeWinds Island Resorts — the next generation

As tourists continue flocking to Florida, it only makes sense for the TradeWinds Island Resorts in St. Pete Beach to invest in expansion.

With 650 new rooms, more retail, a new ballroom and other features, the expansion will bring about 300 new jobs and more than $19 million in new annual tax revenue to St. Pete Beach.

The expansion isn’t about simply adding a bunch of new rooms to accommodate more visitors: It’s a necessary makeover designed with aesthetic and practical improvements in mind:

— The TradeWinds team brought in an architect who has designed several Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton hotels. This won’t be a canyon of towers shading Gulf Boulevard from the sun, and they’re designing the expansion so that it won’t block neighboring hotels’ views.

— A new traffic pattern within the complex will take cars off Gulf Boulevard, with an interior circulation road and fewer entrances and exits.

— They are also upgrading infrastructure with a sophisticated, state-of-the-art stormwater drainage system to address existing flooding concerns.

As the TradeWinds team moves toward gaining approval from the City, it’s meeting with community members and neighbors to gather input. The owners have had an active outreach to the surrounding neighbors to discuss the plans, solicit opinions, and integrate those opinions into planning. Thanks to the voices of neighbors, there will be a new 30-foot-wide landscaped, paved and well-lit beach access maintained by TradeWinds. And TradeWinds has hired landscape architects to add substantial landscaping on Gulf Blvd around parking garages to provide an attractive appearance from the street.

They hosted a public meeting this month and have created a website to share information about the proposed expansion: click here.

Indeed, a concern with any new project is the impact on traffic. In this case, an interior circulation road and a reduction of entrances and exits is not just a benefit for TradeWinds; it’s a community benefit. They are also upgrading infrastructure, necessary in any Florida upgrade like this. A new stormwater drainage system will help with current flooding concerns.

A new conference center, more hotel rooms, a kid’s zone and other new amenities are also included. And by adding more street retail, the project in total will add nearly $9 million in annual sales taxes for the city of St. Pete Beach, more than $4 million in added hotel occupancy taxes, and 300 new jobs, not to mention hundreds of construction jobs.

The St. Pete Beach City Commission will consider this expansion sometime in the fall, and it looks like the TradeWinds is doing the right things to ensure it keeps the community top of mind as it makes its plans.