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Community group outlines plan to preserve Colson Hotel and create Colson Collective
Summary
A coalition including Gulf Coast Community Foundation, Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation and local volunteers described plans to preserve the Colson Hotel building as a community arts and cultural hub called the Colson Collective, after the city helped secure the property for acquisition.
Supporters of a plan to preserve the historic Colson Hotel briefed the Sarasota City Commission on July 21 about their next steps for the site and an organizing entity called the Colson Collective.
Anand Pollegart of Dream Large and chair of the Gulf Coast Community Foundation board said a multi‑organization effort, including the Sarasota Alliance for Historic Preservation and community volunteers, secured acquisition of the structure and has formed an interim owner, Save Sarasota Historic Properties. Pollegart said the property is intended to be conveyed to a nonprofit community development corporation and developed as a low‑impact cultural and creative use that preserves the hotel’s original interior layout and tells its history as an important location for Sarasota’s African American community.
Pollegart said the building originally contained 28 small rooms, with shared bathrooms, and that a preservation approach that keeps room footprints intact would make the site an interpretive, incubator and community space rather than a conventional hotel or nightclub. The group proposes a nonprofit “Colson Collective” to acquire and restore the structure and to run programming aimed at incubating creatives and preserving the site’s history in partnership with local groups. Gulf Coast Community Foundation has established a project fund and is accepting donations, the group said.
Commissioners and residents asked clarifying questions about potential uses, whether housing would be provided (Pollegart said the current concept is program/rental space for artists and nonprofits rather than private housing because converting to housing would require significant interior demolition), and next steps for formation of a nonprofit board and a capital campaign. Pollegart said the property currently sits in Save Sarasota Historic Properties and that the group is forming a nonprofit board and soliciting donors; the project team said they will return with updates and that the community has already played a substantial role in outreach and cleanup of the site.
Ending: Commissioners voiced support for continued outreach; the presenters said the preservation group will continue formation of a nonprofit vehicle and fundraising, and will return with further updates.
