Seventh Florida hotel for boutique leader to incorporate restaurant from Italian Michelin-starred chef Silvia Baracchi, slated for early 2018 opening
SAN FRANCISCO, 2016-Jun-06 — /Travel PR News/ — Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants announced today it will manage a new, luxury lifestyle boutique hotel in Tampa, Florida, that will incorporate a restaurant from Michelin-starred Tuscan chef Silvia Baracchi. The property, which is slated to open in early 2018, further expands Kimpton’s footprint on the gulf coast of the Sunshine State and will be its seventh hotel in Florida, joining recently added Hotel Zamora in St. Pete Beach along with existing hotels in South Beach, Miami, Palm Beach and Vero Beach.
The hotel will be ideally located at the intersection of O’Brien and Laurel streets in the heart of Tampa’s thriving Westshore neighborhood. The new-construction property will be part of a community gathering place built as a modern interpretation of an Italian piazza, essentially creating an intimate town square in an otherwise commercial area. The luxury lifestyle hotel will be designed by award-winning architect Albert Alfonso, who has earned a reputation for ingeniously highlighting the community activities that occur within his spaces. The property will feature 150 rooms and suites spanning five stories, along with a rare Tampa rooftop bar that highlights the spectacular sunsets as well as separate rooftop event space for weddings and special gatherings. The property will also feature more than 4,000 square feet of indoor meeting and event space as well as dedicated venues for musical performances and a lobby bar, pool and fitness center.
The new Tampa hotel will also house the first U.S. outpost for Chef Silvia Baracchi, who gained international acclaim at Il Falconiere, a Michelin-starred restaurant and retreat in Cortona, Tuscany. The intimate fine dining restaurant will be supplied by a new off-site, state-of-the-art hydroponic farm named Red Barn Farm, which will devote nearly eight acres of climate-controlled growing capacity exclusively to the property (but guests can still catch a glimpse of the growing techniques thanks to a showpiece vertical garden). The dinner-only restaurant will feature a menu that reflects a sophisticated and stylish take on the culinary traditions of the Tuscan countryside, and Chef Baracchi also plans to bring her signature cooking classes to the local community. The hotel will also feature a second restaurant where guests can enjoy three casual meals a day and a bakery that will also serve coffee, snacks and café-style fare. All dining experiences will be complemented by abundant live music and performance art, with venues ranging from performance areas on the piazza to indoor stages.
“We are thrilled at the opportunity to bring this caliber of heartfelt hospitality and dining to Tampa, especially since it allows us to continue growing along Florida’s gulf coast,” said Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants CEO Mike DeFrino. “The combination of stunning architecture, a Michelin-starred chef, a fantastic rooftop and Kimpton’s authentic, unscripted guest service make this a special project for us.”
The new hotel will target a large and growing base of business travelers to Florida’s third-largest city and the state’s most important banking and high tech manufacturing hub. Lifestyle travelers are also a part of the hotel’s guest mix, given Tampa’s thriving tourist attractions, including Busch Gardens, the Florida Aquarium, professional sports teams, museums, vibrant nightlife, as well as the nearby St. Pete Beach and Clearwater Beach.
The owner and developer of the new hotel, Giunta Group, is a Tampa-based developer that has built and managed a variety of real estate projects including retail, residential, and commercial projects.
“This signature boutique hotel will be unlike anything else in Tampa, from the rooftop bar and access to the fresh air piazza, to the design by renowned architect Albert Alfonso, to the one-of-a-kind dining experiences,” said The Giunta Group CEO Richard S. Giunta. “As local developers, we were especially drawn to Kimpton’s leadership managing boutique hotels and restaurants around the U.S. and within Florida. We knew Kimpton would bring heart to a hometown project for us.”
ABOUT THE GIUNTA GROUP
The Giunta Group, Ltd., led by Richard S. Giunta, is a dominant presence in Tampa real estate development, focusing on projects that revitalize and enhance the community. The company owns and manages multiple shopping centers including Florida Crossings, Village Plaza at Westchase and Ruskin Crossings as well as multiple other visionary ventures in the Tampa Bay area, including the trend-setting Victory Lofts at Channelside and the upscale Citrus Runs Apartments.
ABOUT KIMPTON HOTELS & RESTAURANTS
San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants is a leading collection of boutique hotels and restaurants and the acknowledged industry pioneer that first introduced the boutique hotel concept to the United States. In 1981, Bill Kimpton founded the company that today is renowned for making travelers feel genuinely cared for through thoughtful perks and amenities, bold, playful design and a sincerely personal style of guest service. Out to help people live full, balanced lives, Kimpton aims to inspire with touches like yoga mats in every room, complimentary coffee and tea to start the day, hosted evening Wine Hour, in-room fitness programming and complimentary bike rentals. The award-winning restaurants and bars are led by talented chefs and bartenders that offer guests a chance to dine like a local.
Kimpton is consistently ranked as one of the top companies in the Market Metrix Hospitality Index, Upper Upscale Segment, for Customer Satisfaction. The company is highly-regarded for its innovative employee culture and benefits and has been named a FORTUNE magazine “Best Place to Work” seven times since 2009. Kimpton is continuously growing and currently operates over 60 hotels and 70 plus restaurants, bars and lounges in 30 U.S. cities. In January 2015, Kimpton was welcomed into the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) family of hotel brands, bringing together two special cultures and sets of values to create the world’s largest boutique hotel business. For more information, visit www.KimptonHotels.com.
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MEDIA CONTACTS
Reservations questions can be directed totalktous@kimptongroup.com
For press queries, please contact:
Jacque Riley
Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants
202-956-6675
jacque.riley@kimptonhotels.com
Aimee Grove
(415) 706-1906
aimee@smittencomm.com
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Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants to manage new luxury lifestyle boutique hotel in Tampa, Florida slated to open in early 2018