- Hotel Indigo has a proposed expansion into the lot adjacent to the current site, along Gaines St. and Woodward Ave.
- The expansion would add 88 hotel rooms, a restaurant and duplex housing.
- Watch now to see what a local business owner thinks of the development.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
FSU and FAMU football keep on winning, bringing more buzz and more business to Tallahassee's Collegetown. Hotels are looking to keep up.
I'm Alberto Camargo, your Collegetown neighborhood reporter. I'm here at Hotel Indigo the heart of Collegetown. More accurately, I'm standing in front of the proposed expansion of Hotel Indigo, right up to the Gaines St./Woodward Ave. roundabout.
The proposal is for a five-story mixed-use building with 88 additional hotel rooms to Hotel Indigo's existing 143. The ground floor would include a 7,000-square-foot restaurant. The plans also include space for four duplexes with eight total bedrooms. Hotel Indigo GM Haley Kamenicky says the extra space is welcome during peak season.
"We always have a lot of demand for all of our football game weekends, all of our home games. We typically have a waiting list of people that are looking to get into our hotel so we're really excited about being able to accommodate more guests during those times."
Word about the expansion hadn't got out. In fact, it was me telling business owners along Gaines St. about the whole thing.
"Yes, breaking news to me, I had no idea."
Brenna Beever has owned and operated Trove Salon + Style Bar since 2021 and has been styling hair for a decade.
"We do haircutting, styling, extensions, color. Pretty much anything, you name it, we do it."
She says there are of course many positives to having more people staying across the street from her salon, and not just for football Saturdays.
"Parents weekends, move-in weekends, we'll have parents or people from out of town saying that, they'll call and say they saw our products in the window or something like, oh you guys carry Oribe, do you have an opening for a blowout?"
Her only concern is one that is troubles anyone looking to spend an afternoon in Collegetown.
"Parking, I think would be the biggest negativity just because we don't have a ton of parking down here. So my biggest concern would literally be that."
This site plan indicates that 119 parking spaces would be required for the new development, but 64 of them — just over half — are noted as 'off-site parking'. That includes street parking like this and designated spaces in the Collegetown parking garage.
This project is managed by Park Place Hospitality Group. I spoke with the vice president and he told me once city permits are secured, they will break ground in late 2024.
The expanded Hotel Indigo is projected to open in early 2026. In Collegetown, I'm your neighborhood reporter, Alberto Camargo, ABC27.
