Plans are in the works to bring a new hotel to midtown Gulf Shores with a total of 95 units on West Second Street north of the Happy Pappy coffee shop.

Townplace Suites at Midtown is the proposed brand for the site at 1550 W. Second St. and staff plans to approve the hotel plan with conditions including getting permission from the FAA to be taller that 50 feet for the elevator and parapet. It will be a four-story building and 298 parking spaces are included.

Another request before the commission will be consider a two-building development in the same area as Townplace Suites. Developers are seeking to incorporate residential, office, retail and restaurants uses in the development.

 It is part of the overall PUD approved by the council in February of 2023.

“The PUD was designed and approved as a nine-lot mixed use, pedestrian-oriented commercial project with professional office, retail, restaurant and residential uses,” a staff memo on the Jan. 9 planning commission agenda states. “The entire infrastructure for the PUD has been constructed, including parking drive aisles, pedestrian sidewalks, stormwater drainage, lighting, dumpster pads and screening, and landscaping.”

The request then was to remove one of the buildings on the site and the mobile vendor court to build a 100-room hotel. At its November 2022 meeting, the planning commission gave a 9-0 favorable recommendation for the proposed changes.

There are more than 17,000 vacation rental properties on the Alabama Gulf Coast between condos, beach houses and hotels. There are a total of 2,473 hotel rooms in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach and none in Fort Morgan.