June 05, 2012--BRADENTON -- Exterior renovations for the "Pink Palace" building in downtown Bradenton were unanimously approved Tuesday by Bradenton's Architectural Review Board -- and the color pink will be a thing of the past.

"Our goal is to take the exterior and first floor of the interior back to the 1920s era," said Brian Long, director of development for The Widewaters Group Inc.

The new 119-room Hampton Inn & Suites hotel will be restored as much as possible to replicate the style of the structure built in 1925. To stay true to the style the building will not be pink, as it is commonly known, but will rather be painted in off-white and medium beige tones, the review board and developers agreed.

"We don't like it, we don't think it looks good," Long said of the pink tone. "We don't think it's attractive."

He said some people loved the pink color, others hated it, and others didn't care, and that it would be impossible to "please everybody." He said that in the 1920s pink was not a common building color, and that it was only until the 1970s that the building was deemed the "Pink Palace."

The new hotel along Third Avenue and 10th Street West is expected to attract 40,000 to 50,000 guests a year and generate about $2.5 million a year.

Windows and storefront entries will be refurbished, and those that have been extensively damaged will be done to replicate the historic aspect.

Signs on each of the four sides will be added to draw attention to the hotel.

Construction is set to start this summer and be completed within a year.

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