Mar. 30, 2005 - TAMPA -- A leading high-end hotel company may come to Tampa to manage a proposed high-tech conference center, hotel and condo tower in the downtown's Channel District.

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, which bills itself as the largest luxury hotel management company in North America, has signed a letter of intent with developers planning to build the $450-million Tampa International Technology Center.

Headquartered in Toronto, Fairmont manages 45 hotels in eight countries, including the Savoy in London. Two properties, Seattle's Fairmont Olympic Hotel and the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess Hotel in Arizona, are repeat winners of AAA's top rating.

"This will be as good a hotel as any they have in any city in the United States," said Murray Klauber, founder of the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort at Longboat Key and lead developer of the project.

The developers have a deal to lease waterfront land from the Tampa Port Authority. On Tuesday, they passed a milestone by providing the public agency a commitment letter from a merchant banking firm to finance 70 percent of the project.

That gives Tampa Bay Technology Center LLC one year to break ground. Klauber predicted construction will begin by the end of this year and be completed by early 2008.

The 45-story hotel and condo tower would be almost as tall as Tampa's biggest skyscrapers. Plans call for 400 hotel rooms and 182 condos, whose owners could use hotel amenities such as the spa and room service.

The conference center is designed to beam corporate meetings and training sessions around the globe via satellite, fiber-optic cable and wireless systems. It would include three amphitheaters seating from 100 to 250 people, an exhibition hall and meeting rooms.

Port commissioners gave the project a green light last fall despite objections that the port authority was displacing traditional maritime businesses.

The agreement with Klauber's group requires the port authority to fill in a slip called Metroport and not renew its lease on the property with International Ship Repair & Marine Services.

The project's success depends on reaching a deal with a major hotel operator. Fairmont confirmed the letter of intent Tuesday but declined comment before a management deal is signed.

Redwood Capital Advisors, the merchant banking firm, brought Fairmont into the project because the hotel company has lots of experience handling group business like conventions and meetings, said Stephen Goodman, managing director of Redwood.

And while Fairmont is a strong luxury brand, Goodman said, it doesn't charge as much as a five-star like a Ritz-Carlton or Four Seasons.

"Fairmont builds a very classy hotel," Goodman said. "But Tampa isn't going to command those rates just yet." He described Fairmont as "a 41/2-star hotel."

Redwood is putting together a syndicate of institutional investors to finance the project. The key to making the project work is selling the condos and using the money to pay down debt, Goodman said. He said the 400,000 square feet of condos should sell for $650 a square foot -- or $260-million.

The hotel would likely attract about half its customers from corporate meetings and half from leisure travelers, Goodman said.

Port authority officials received the financing letter and other documents Tuesday. They will need several weeks to review them, spokeswoman Lori Musser said.

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