After a long but successful legal battle over the title to the historic Walesbilt Hotel, the Lake Wales Community Redevelopment Agency is wasting no time moving to begin their efforts to see the building redeveloped.
The CRA has approved the hiring of the engineering firm of Kimley-Horn to conduct an evaluation of the hotel that will include a structural property condition report and a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment. The report the firm will generate will be included in packets prepared for the several companies that has stepped forward to express interest in the hotel.
City Manager James Slaton, who also serves as the executive director of the CRA, has said that at least eight different firms are interested in returning the building to service as a hotel. The city has yet to initiate an expected nationwide advertising of the property to reach other potential bidders. A hotel is the required outcome of the rehab project, according to city officials.
The 99-year-old hotel has not been used as a hotel since the mid-1990s, when it was sold at auction. It passed through the city’s hands after a foreclosure for unpaid code violation liens in 2006-2007 before the city gave the building to a Winter Haven firm.