No Room at the Hotel Florida
The New Florida Hotel, Lakeland, Fla.
July 31, 2001
Dear Preservation 911,
We have a hotel here in downtown Lakeland, Fla., which deserves saving. Some important people say the Regency Hotel is not architecturally important, but I think it is. It is a beautiful building and it is fairly sound. How many other 76-year-old buildings can say that?
It started out as the New Florida Hotel and once was a favorite stopping place for Henry Ford and other notables from bygone eras. The building itself stands out because of its "wedding cake topper" tower and its pink color. It has a ballroom on the top floor where many proms were held. On the ground floor is a lovely dining room whose great windows overlook beautiful Lake Mirror. Unfortunately, it has been vacant since 1998, and the city bought it last May.
The city commission has given a date of Sept. 14 as a deadline to submit proposals for the development of the hotel. After that, if there are no attractive proposals, it will be torn down. Some people have offered $2 million to the city to build a park on that site, but we already have two other parks downtown. One of the city commissioners said he thought it would be a great site to see the building blown up for a movie. That really made me shudder.
After much support from the people, the city commission is now willing to entertain all proposals, even affordable housing. (Previously, they absolutely refused to entertain that idea when it was submitted by a local bank.) So the commission is coming around. I just hope that they won't tear it down and then say that they tried everything.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
Yours truly,
Hillevi E. Kirkland
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