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Board approves design changes for 600 S. Palafox hotel; asks for added windows and canopy adjustment
Summary
The ARB approved revisions to the previously approved hotel at 600 South Palafox — reducing the building from seven to six stories and adding a second-floor pool and larger meeting spaces — and requested additional fenestration and canopy alignment on the Palafox elevation.
The Architecture Review Board on June 26 approved revised plans for a hotel at 600 South Palafox Street, accepting a developer-led change that reduces the project from seven stories and 228 rooms to six stories and 184 rooms while adding a second-floor outdoor pool deck and larger meeting facilities.
Alex Grace, representing Pensacola Halifax Lodge, said financial underwriting prompted the changes. “Our underwriting came back and said, look, we love the project, love the market. You have too many room counts. We need to be able to reduce the room count so we don't dilute the market,” Grace said, describing lender-driven requests to reduce rooms while preserving amenities. The revision preserves previously approved materials and massing where possible.
Architect Buck Lindsey described the pool deck and associated program changes: the revised roofline reduces one story, the pool deck sits open to the sky on the second floor with an accessory bar and access from the fitness and amenity spaces, and meeting rooms on the first floor were enlarged to create a more functional ballroom. Lindsey noted parking below the pool deck remains and that the project will provide more parking than code requires.
Board members praised retention of continuous street frontage and the pool/ballroom additions, but asked for more glazing along the southern panel of the pool/meeting area and for the canopy to be aligned with any added fenestration to avoid an awkward termination. “I really appreciate your marketing study people identifying the problem of a banqueting space… I think replacing that on the site is a very, very good amenity for the community,” a board member said.
The board approved the submission subject to an abbreviated review of added fenestration in the southern panel and an appropriately extended canopy to conform to new glazing. The applicant said it would add windows where feasible and address canopy alignment prior to final sign-off.
