Miramar Resort eyes winter opening on St. Pete Beach

A new eight-story hotel tower stands beside the remaining buildings of a St. Pete Beach motel that first welcomed guests more than 70 years ago.

The Miramar Resort at 4200 Gulf Boulevard is preparing to reopen after years of planning, construction and a change in direction that spared part of the original property from demolition.

Four sign permit applications filed with St. Pete Beach on Sept. 22 offer another look at the project. The plans include illuminated lettering and a monument sign for the 50-room hotel, which will retain the Miramar name while joining the JdV by Hyatt collection.

Owner Kevin Bowden said the sign applications are part of the final preparations. He hopes to have them installed by Dec. 1, pending city approval.

“It’s kind of just business as usual,” Bowden said. “We need to get our signs built and up.”

The company is aiming for a December opening but is giving itself some room. For now, Bowden said it is telling prospective guests to expect the resort to open during the winter 2026-27 season.

“I don’t want to overpromise,” he said. “We’re shooting for December, but I don’t know if we’ll make that.”

The company is preparing to accept Hyatt reservations for March and April but will wait until the hotel receives its certificate of occupancy before making earlier dates available.

The completed resort will have 30 rooms in the new tower and 20 in renovated portions of the original motel. Each tower room will have a balcony overlooking the Gulf, while the older accommodations will retain their courtyard layout.

A new swimming pool and ground-level bar will serve guests. On the eighth floor, a restaurant and bar called Solara will offer steak, seafood and other upscale American fare.

The rooftop restaurant will also have outdoor seating overlooking the beach.

Bowden said the tower and courtyard accommodations will have different price points, giving guests a choice between newer beachfront rooms and the motel’s original layout.

That combination was not part of the first redevelopment plan.

The Miramar opened in 1953, when smaller, low-rise motels were a familiar sight along Gulf Boulevard. Its buildings faced an interior courtyard, a design that became part of the character of older beachfront properties.

Bowden’s investment group purchased the resort in 2017 with plans to replace it.

“We kind of bought the hotel with the intent to knock it down and build a newer boutique,” he said.

In 2021, the city approved plans for a 54-room replacement hotel that would have required demolishing the existing motel.

Bowden eventually changed course. A revised proposal presented in 2024 kept 20 of the older rooms while replacing 10 others with a new tower. The project also called for demolishing the resort’s two existing pools and building a new one.

The St. Pete Beach City Commission approved the revised development in January 2025 on a 3-2 vote. Some commissioners raised concerns about retaining guest rooms in the older, low-lying buildings rather than placing all accommodations above the required flood elevation.

The project had already been revised when hurricanes struck the Gulf Coast in 2024.

Bowden said the motel sustained some flooding during the storms. With redevelopment plans underway, the owners closed the property, proceeded with demolition and began construction.

“The universe helped us along a little bit, you could say,” he said.

The new tower changes the scale of the property, but the remaining courtyard buildings will preserve part of its original layout.

The Hyatt affiliation is another change. JdV by Hyatt is a collection of independently styled hotels that retain their individual names while participating in the company’s reservation and loyalty programs.

The resort’s parking arrangements have also been part of the redevelopment. During city proceedings this summer, Bowden outlined plans for a nearby valet parking facility to accommodate hotel and restaurant guests. The proposal includes controlled access to an off-site lot.

Bowden said he visits the construction site nearly every day. He expects the elevators to be running in the coming weeks and offered to show the property once the work is further along.

After years of planning, revisions and construction, the Miramar is approaching its reopening. Guests will find a considerably different hotel from the one that closed after the 2024 hurricanes, but Bowden hopes the surviving courtyard rooms will preserve some of what made the original resort recognizable.

“It gives you that kind of old Florida boutique style of a hotel,” Bowden said. “That’s what we’re going for.”