SEBRING — Projects to rehabilitate two long-vacant historic downtown hotels and make improvements to a museum received a boost from the Sebring City Council this week.
The City Council approved several ordinances regarding the Santa Rosa and the Nan-Ces-O-Wee.
Council members also agreed the city should participate in a project to make the Military Sea Services Museum building more accessible.
In regard to the hotels, Anthony Collins, who bought the structures earlier this year, said he hopes to begin construction on the buildings early next year with a 2017 completion date.
Collins plans to convert the hotels into secure apartment buildings. In addition, the project would allow for some retail space on the ground floor of the Nan-Ces-O-Wee. Those plans would likely include a restaurant.
Both hotels have been vacant for more than 10 years. The hotels were built in the 1920s, not long after the founding of Sebring. The Santa Rosa was last operated as a tea room, but that eventually went out of business.
The Nan-Ces-O-Wee received hurricane damage during 2004.