TARPON SPRINGS — A boutique hotel planned for a long-vacant downtown lot cleared its final hurdle Oct. 13, when the City Commission unanimously approved the site plan for the Tarpon Registry.
Developer Infill Studio LLC will build a two-story, 11,731-square-foot mixed-use building at 144 E. Tarpon Ave., with 15 hotel rooms and a ground floor of retail space, an eatery, event space and an open courtyard. The Planning and Zoning Board and the Heritage Preservation Board had both recommended approval.
The vote brought a rare moment of harmony to a commission that, as one member acknowledged later in the meeting, has drawn attention for its infighting.
When Vice Mayor Panagiotis Koulias asked for a realistic completion date, developer Joe Harrington said construction itself should take about 15 months. But with architectural documents, structural engineering and permitting still ahead, he said, “I would say two to two and a half years.”
Harrington, who attended the hearing with managing partner Casey Smith, thanked commissioners for the opportunity to build in Tarpon Springs.
“The community has been super welcoming of the project,” he said. “It’s been fantastic to work with (Planning and Zoning Director) Allie Keen and her staff. We’re super excited to get started on it.”
Commissioner Michael Eisner told the developers, “I know you jumped through a lot of hoops. You’re at the final hoop.”
Koulias said he and his colleagues had pushed the developers for “the most quality looking building, and I think they accomplished that.” He added that he had wanted to offer incentives for a bigger project, “but it worked out the way it worked out, and congratulations.”
Mayor John Koulianos also thanked the developers.
“Anytime anyone wants to risk their capital here in Tarpon Springs, it’s a compliment to our city, and I’m always grateful,” he said.
Former Mayor Anita Protos, now a member of the Heritage Preservation Board, said during public comment that she had come to urge approval.
“It’s beautiful for our community,” she said. “They tried to make it as historic as they could, as a new development on Tarpon Avenue. They worked very hard with historic preservation. They were fun to work with, and they are giving us something to be very proud of.”
Protos said the city’s character is under pressure elsewhere. “We’re losing our Sponge Docks, little by little,” she said. “It’s not the Greek Sponge Docks that it used to be, but we can keep our Main Street going and work on the Sponge Docks too.”
The road to approval was a long one. Keen told commissioners the site once held three buildings, built in phases between 1906 and the 1960s. The original building housed a warehouse store and bakery, with apartments above.
The buildings were declared unsafe in 2008. The city acquired the property — known as the Forbes Lot, after its last owner — in 2009 and demolished the structures that year.
After several failed redevelopment attempts, the city held an industry day in February 2025 to pitch the site to developers. That October, commissioners, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency board, reviewed three proposals and chose Infill Studio’s. The CRA board signed a development agreement with the company Dec. 16, 2025. The Heritage Preservation Board approved the project in July, and the Planning and Zoning Board followed Sept. 21.
Keen said the project is consistent with the city’s Comprehensive Plan, its Special Area Plan and the development agreement. The site falls within the Downtown Character District, which is meant to promote retail and mixed-use development along Tarpon Avenue.
“The project not only provides retail and event space but also offers much-needed and desired lodging within the heart of downtown,” Keen said. “The proposed uses will increase downtown activity and benefit the surrounding businesses.”
The hotel will also nod to the site’s past. Inside the entrance, the developers plan to display the cornerstone of the old G.E. Noblit Hardware building, honoring Granville Edwin “G.E.” Noblit, a merchant who in 1887 founded the city’s first hardware store, which stood on the site for decades.
Noblit later became vice president of the Sponge Exchange Bank of Tarpon Springs and helped organize the Tarpon Springs Board of Trade, which he led as president. He was among the originators of the plan to carve Pinellas County out of Hillsborough County and played a major role in bringing the railroad to Pinellas.
The goodwill did not carry through the rest of the meeting. During closing comments, Commissioner David Banther, referring to a dust-up between commissioners earlier in the evening, challenged his colleagues to choose their path for the rest of their terms.
“Are we going to have the next year and a half look like that last item we just did, which was positive, collective, or are we going to spend it like — as I was famously quoted in the paper — ‘The Jerry Springer Show’?” he asked. “We have that choice to make.”
“We are all adults up here, and we are not put up here for theater,” Banther said. “We’re not put up here for arguments, for gotchas, for name-calling.”
He likened the commission to the board of directors of a $100 million corporation and said no one in the private sector would appoint its members, given how they behave.
“I know you want the best for Tarpon, but we have to govern ourselves like mature adults up here, and I’m talking to myself as well,” he said. “I can get heated in spirit.”
With term limits set to end commissioners’ tenures in about 18 months, Banther framed the choice as one of legacy.
“When we’re all saying our goodbyes, are we going to be remembered as the board for entertainment, clipped on social media, or are we the board that did the best we could and got things done?” he said. “I know we have the ability to get things done, because I’ve seen each of you do it individually.”