A planned hotel to replace the New World Landing building on South Palafox has scaled back its design again.
The latest plans for the new hotel are for a six-story Tempo by Hilton hotel, located at the corner of Palafox and Cedar streets.
3H Group Hotels of Chattanooga, Tennessee, submitted new plans for the hotel to the Pensacola Architectural Review Board. The ARB had already approved plans last year for a seven-story 220-room hotel, which were scaled back from a rejected 2023 concept of a nine-story 231-room hotel. A second version lowered the floor count to eight, and a third version was approved at seven stories.
Other things dropped from the original plan included a rooftop bar and pool. A second-floor patio that overlooked Palafox Street was in the seven-story design, but that feature was removed in the latest designs.
The new plans call for a six-story, 184-room hotel with meeting space, dining area, and bar on the first floor and a pool on the second floor. The hotel will be 88 feet tall, while the original design was nearly 100 feet.
The developers won approval in 2023 to demolish the old New World Landing 2023, and a demolition permit was issued in August 2024 after their design was fully approved last year. No demolition work has begun at the site.
New World Landing has been a well-known landmark for events in downtown Pensacola since it opened in 1983 as a redevelopment project of a former warehouse of the St. Regis Paper Company cardboard box factory. The boutique hotel offered 16 rooms for visitors and served as a popular venue for local political events. The Panhandle Tiger Bay Club used the venue to host many of its events, bringing in high-profile speakers to the city.
The building was damaged in Hurricane Sally, forcing the restaurant Skopelos, housed in the boutique hotel, to close its doors.
The ARB will review the new design at its June 26 meeting.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Plans for South Palafox hotel to replace New World Landing keep shrinking
Reporting by Jim Little, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
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