Lake Killarney hotel draws ire and praise
WINTER PARK — Developer Adam Wonus wants to build the HendersonHotel, a five-story luxury lodging on the banks ofWinter Park’s Lake Killarney beside the HillstoneRestaurantwherehe proposed to his wife10 years ago.
But not all of the people who live in the neighborhood around the lake agree withWonus’ vision for the property.
“It’s residential,” said 25-year resident Nort Northam sitting in his chair by the lake. “We’re not Kissimmee, and we’re not International Drive, and that’s what they’re trying to make us into.”
The latest plans for the project, which was pulled a year ago for revisions, will get their first public hearing atWinter Park’s Planning & Zoning BoardmeetingonDec.1. Residents, both for andagainst the hotel, are gearing up for a challenge.
“This is Winter Park,” said the city’s director of planning and community development Bronce Stephenson. “You always get a pretty good-sized group who are for things and a pretty good-sized group who are against things.”
The hotel on the block from U.S. Highway 17-92 to the lake between Beachview and Fairview Avenueswould feature 132 rooms, a 220-seat restaurant and a 7,500-square-foot ballroom and meeting space.
Wonus, owner and CEO of Atrium Management, sees the project as connecting to the history ofWinter Park.
“Thecitywasfoundedat a lakefront hotel,” he said, referring to an 1882 gala at the Rogers House Inn that the city adopted as its founding date.
Wonus, 37, said the stretch of 17-92 between Lee Road and Fairbanks Avenue was once home to more than 30 motels and lodges. Working with architect Baker Barrios, whodesignedTheAlfond Inn for Rollins College, Wonus said he has tried to capture some of the classicWinter Park style.
“The hotel has some really unique elements that play to the history ofWinter Park,” Stephenson said. “The architecture is a bit of a throwback. It’s definitely not modern architecture.”
But Jeanne Wall, who owns two homes on the northwest side of the lake, says these appeals to history are a ploy to sell the hotel to the public at the expense of the character of the neighborhood.
“It’s too big an ask,” she said. “They shouldn’t evenbe considering it.”
According to the public notice on the hearings, the projectwould require amendments to the Comprehensive Plan for future land use for the site. While the part of the property along 17-92 is already zoned commercial, three lots along the lake would have to be changed from residential use. It would also require a height variance for going over the city’s maximum of four stories in the area.
Neighbor Dave Sutphin, whose house is a block from the proposed site, said hewould be happy for the change.
“My wife and I are both very significant proponents of what
Adamis trying to do,” he said.
Sutphin says the block is currently a blight on the area. Only one of the houses is occupied by renters in a home managed by Wonus’ company.
There are two empty office buildings and a motel, The Sweet Lodge, all of which Sutphin says attract vagrants.
“It’s really an accumulation of poor zoning decisions over time,” Sutphin said.
Wonus began talking to neighbors more than two years ago. When residents complained of the traffic that was cutting through their neighborhood, he funded a traffic study of the area. Whenthe residents and city came up with a plan to add barriers to prevent through-traffic, Wonus paid for the barriers.
Eyeing this as his first hotel project, Wonus originally submitted plans last year, but he pulled them before the first public hearing was scheduled after talking more with the neighbors.
“Wehadinitially submitted, but determined that we needed to take additional time to try to address the concerns of the neighborhood,” he said.
The new plans submitted last month through Wonus’ company Winter Park Historic Hotels Group made changes such as moving a parking garage underground.
Wonus also purchased three homesto the south of the property along Grove Avenue that he plans to turn into a park and donate to the city. He’s also offering to pay for a lake cleanup.
“This area has been neglected,” he said. “We look at this [as] a net positive for the environment. We want it to be better than it was beforewe got there.”
Wall, however, says the added greenspace won’t change the overall effect the hotel could have onthe neighborhoodandpointing out that he’s added both rooms and parking spaces in the new plan.
“In terms of the number of rooms, the traffic, the impact … he’s increased it,” she said.
Sutphin, who has lived on Lake Killarney for 16 years, said he believes more neighbors are for the project than against it, pointing to a presentation Wonus made last month to the residents.
“I think most people came away from that thinking, ‘Wow, this is really a beautiful hotel that would be good for the neighborhood,’” he said.
But Wall is angry about the costs incurred in trying to fight this. Last year, she created nohendersonhotel.com to alert the public to the proposal, and she said others have hired attorneys.
“There’s a lot of people spending time and money on a project that was sent packing a year ago,” she said.
Northam said he’s organizing a petition against theHenderson.
He and Wall said their neighborhood is under siege from developers and worry that allowing this change will mean more big projects will follow.