Faced with choosing a hotel proposal from four competing developers, Kissimmee’s Board of Commissioners told all the bidders to go back to the drawing board and come back in June with a new plan.

Hospitality workers cloaked in union T-shirts packed the room and coalesced behind the proposal from Kissimmee Place Development Group for a 300-room Hyatt Place hotel and convention center adjacent to the Toho Square parking garage, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.

But Mayor Jackie Espinosa said there wouldn’t be enough parking at the garage to accommodate the project. “The Hyatt is beautiful …the lighting, the gazebos, everything they’re planning on doing is magnificent,” she said. “It does bring that class, but my concern is that it’s too much.”

None of the commissioners strongly endorsed any of the concepts, although the city has long sought to build a hotel in its downtown area. The proposals from KPDG and Azure Hotel International Inc. were too lavish, while the ones from Skyview Companies and IHRMC Hotels & Resorts weren’t ambitious enough.  And it became clear that a majority wanted a residential component at the Toho Square site.

Azure and IHMRC are aiming their proposals for the Civic Center site, while Skyview and KPDG are focused on Toho Square.

Espinosa said she felt like Goldilocks, trying each project on for size and not liking the fit. “So perhaps a solution would be to pivot, and not accept the Toho proposals, and let’s think about housing,” she said.

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