With some mixed messages about how the Ocala City council wants a proposed downtown hotel to look, council members unanimously voted to begin negotiating with Downtown Ocala LLC to build and operate a downtown hotel.
Downtown Ocala LLC is owned by Ocala hotelier Danny Gaekwad, who already owns several area hotels and other businesses. Developer Albert Peek’s Broadway & First of Ocala LLC had also submitted a proposal and gone through a nearly three-month negotiation, but recently pulled out. That left Gaekwad as the sole remaining applicant.
