McKibbon Hospitality to Build Hotel in Tampa’s Channel District

McKibbon Hospitality is responding to the influx of multifamily development in Tampa’s Channel District with plans to build a hotel.

The Tampa-based hotel developer bought a .74-acre vacant site at 111 N. Meridian Avenue for $9.3 million, the Tampa Bay Business Journal reported. The seller was Duluth, Georgia-based Channelside Self Storage, which had planned to build a self-storage facility at the site and scrapped its plans.

The lot is set to be developed into a 13-story hotel with more than 200 rooms and 13,000 square feet of retail space. The property would have drop-off areas on North Meridian Avenue and East Washington Street. A rezoning request filed by the previous owner is currently pending.

The project would be the second hotel in the district, following the 2019 opening of a dual-flag Hampton Inn/Home2Suites at the corner of North Meridian Avenue and Kennedy Boulevard. A hotel was planned for a site just two blocks from the McKibbon property, but the project was scrapped in 2022.

Tampa is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country; its population increased 1.3 percent between 2022 and 2023. In light of the city’s growth, the Channel District has become a hot neighborhood for young adults. In 2022, more than 1,500 multifamily units were in the development pipeline for the area.

The Channel District’s growth has also spurred mixed-use development, like Strategic Property Partners’ expansion of the $3 billion Water Street Tampa project.

The expansion features three projects spanning 2 million square feet: a condo high-rise and a built-to-suit office tower, plus an entertainment district surrounding the Amalie Arena, home to the Tampa Bay Lightning, which will include a performance venue, a limited-service hotel, a parking garage and a “vibrant green space.”