After about seven months of negotiations, Lake Wales is on the verge of signing an agreement with the company chosen in October to redevelop the historic Walesbilt Hotel.
The Community Redevelopment Agency’s Board is scheduled to vote on the interim agreement at its June 2 meeting.
City Manager James Slaton, representing the CRA, has been negotiating with leaders of Restoration St. Louis since the board selected the company in October over another finalist seeking to restore the 1920s-era landmark.
“I’m both relieved and extremely excited,” Slaton said. “I think this just really solidifies the fact that we’re actually going to get it done.”
Though the agreement gives Restoration St. Louis eight months to complete the pre-construction work, it might not take that long, Slaton said. The two side will next negotiate on a construction contract, and work could potentially begin by the end of this year or early next year, he said.
A copy of the agreement is included in the agenda packet for the CRA Board meeting. It establishes an eight-month process for Restoration St. Louis to complete a series of tasks, from selection of an architect through design development and construction plans.
The CRA would pay an estimated $2 million to Restoration St. Louis in stages throughout the process. Altogether, the CRA will contribute a maximum of $17.5 million toward the final completion of the project, projected to cost $43 million, the agreement says.
Restoration St. Louis projects the total cost at $43 million.
The Walesbilt Hotel, a 10-story structure at 5 W. Park Ave., opened in 1926 during the Florida land boom. Known variously over the years as the Dixie Walesbilt, the Hotel Royal Walesbilt and the Hotel Grand, it has been vacant for decades and shows obvious signs of deterioration, despite its status on the National Register of Historic Places.
Lake Wales’ CRA acquired the building through foreclosure in 2007, and few years later the city transferred ownership to a Winter Haven company headed by Raymond Brown. He announced plans to restore the structure and convert it into condominiums, with retail space on the first floor, but made little progress over the next decade.
Lake Wales sued Brown’s company in 2022, accusing him of committing fraud in claims he made while seeking the redevelopment contract. The two sides settled in April 2025, as Lake Wales agreed to pay Brown $450,000 to regain ownership.
The CRA then sought applications from developers before the board chose Restoration St. Louis, a company that has completed many renovation projects in its home city and in Iowa.
Contract outlines three-phase process
Slaton initially said he expected to have a contract signed by December, but the negotiations proved complicated. Restoration St. Louis relies heavily on federal tax credits for its work to renovate historic structures.
The National Park Service manages the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives program, which gives developers tax credits for restoring buildings determined by the secretary of the interior to be “certified historic structures.” The company has said that restoration of Walesbilt would not be financially viable without the tax credits, former CRA Board Chair Robin Gibson has said.
“It’s a complicated structure with a lot of elements to it,” Slaton said. “You’ve got tax credit, or potential tax credit, implications, IRS tax code implications, Community Redevelopment Agency statutes, there are implications related to that. Even from the public borrowing standpoint, there are implications. So finding an instrument that satisfies all of those separate individual bodies of law has been complicated.”
Restoration St. Louis’ two principals, Amrit Gill and Amy Gill, are expected to attend the June 2 CRA Board meeting, Lake Wales spokesperson Eric Marshall said.
The interim agreement creates a framework for the developer and the city to move the project through the preconstruction phase. The contract does not include a commitment by either party to begin construction, which would require at least one further agreement.
The contract lays out a three-phased process: schematic work (estimated to take four to five weeks), development (five to 10 weeks) and construction documents (10 to 12 weeks). The CRA will pay Restoration St. Louis fixed amounts as stages of the project are completed.
The agreement lists a “milestone fee breakdown” for each of the projected eight months of the pre-design activities. For example, Restoration St. Louis would receive $66,000 for architect selection, project management setup and preliminary historic research and photographic documentation during the first month.
The highest payment from the CRA would be $380,000 for construction documents in month eight, including construction design finalization; permit submission and historic compliance documentation and developer close-out.
During other steps of the process, Restoration St. Louis would hire consultants, complete design development drawings and plan the sourcing of materials for interior work.
The agreement also mentions parking parcels across Stuart Avenue, just south of the Walesbilt Hotel.
The CRA Board voted at its May 12 meeting to approve spending $4.5 million to buy a 1.21-acre property at 100 W Stuart Ave. That parcel is owned by White Pelican Partners, based in Winter Haven. The registered agent for the company is Carl (Bud) Strang III, CEO of Six/Ten LLC, which owns many properties in Winter Haven.
The agreement also specifies the use of a 0.43-acre property owned by the CRA at 0 Stuart Ave. for public parking that would benefit the hotel.
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lake Wales nears agreement on first phase of Walesbilt restoration
Reporting by Gary White, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
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