Daytona Beach, FL – One of Daytona Beach’s most iconic beachside hotels is about to get a major facelift.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide – the parent company of Westin Hotels & Resorts – formally announced on Thursday that a $20 million renovation is planned to turn the former Desert Inn into the Daytona Beach area’s first Westin hotel.
The Westin Daytona Beach Resort & Spa is set to open by fall 2016 with 200 guest rooms, meeting facilities and all the other signature amenities that usually accompany a Westin brand hotel.
“The Westin Daytona Beach Resort & Spa is a terrific addition to our growing resort portfolio,” said Bob Jacobs, the Vice President of Brand Management for Sheraton & Westin North America. “The hotel will offer travelers a breathtaking oceanfront setting where they can relax and rejuvenate within close proximity of the city’s most admired attractions.”
The Desert Inn – located at 900 North Atlantic Avenue – is arguably one of the biggest eyesores currently on State Road A1A, with only a shell remaining of what used to be one of the more unique-looking hotels on Daytona’s beachside.
The property is now owned by Daytona Beach-based Humphrey Realty – a privately held real estate development and ownership firm specializing in hospitality and commercial projects – and will be run by the Azul Hospitality Group.
Westin officials say the new hotel will have an Olympic-size outdoor pool, 2 restaurants & bars and 25,000 square feet of indoor & outdoor meeting space as well as a 5,000 square-foot spa.
“We are excited to introduce Westin to Daytona Beach through this conversion and continue to see strong demand from owners and developers across North America to bring the brand into new markets,” said Allison Reid, Senior Vice President of North America Development for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.
The new hotel will have a completely new exterior and interior as well as keep its current 500 feet of oceanfront beach, all of which is expected to be free of vehicles once an equal amount of off-beach parking is created nearby. That’s part of a deal the property owners worked out with the Volusia County Council last May.
The Desert Inn was sold soon after former owner Dennis Devlin became the target of a child pornography investigation by various law enforcement agencies, eventually headed by the United States Department of Justice.
Federal agents raided the hotel where Devlin lived and worked in February 2011, taking several iPhones and numerous CDs and DVDs concealed in the ceiling of Devlin’s bathroom.
DOJ says all those items taken during the raid contained sexually explicit images of a 13-year-old girl and other child porn images.
Devlin was ordered by a judge to give up his share of $1.55 million dollars from the sale of the hotel to the federal government as part of his conviction in that case. He was sentenced to 15 years in jail in July 2011.
Westin has more than 200 hotels and resorts in nearly 40 countries and territories.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.