Dec. 3--LAKE WALES -- The city's biggest eyesore is one step closer to again becoming a functional building.

City commissioners, acting as the Community Redevelopment Agency board, Tuesday unanimously approved the selection of a developer to renovate the long vacant, 11-story Grand Hotel.

The Canadian-based firm, owned by a developer from India and operating as Dixie Walesbilt LLC, has plans to spend up to $6 million to renovate the bottom floors for commercial use and convert upper floors to condominiums.

The firm was unanimously picked by a city review committee.

City Manager Tony Otte said a review team made up of city staff members and the city attorney will negotiate a contract containing the specific details of the arrangement.

Commissioners said the contract should be completed by March 31, 2009.

Built in 1926 and originally known as the Dixie Walesbilt, the hotel has been vacant for many years.

The city acquired the building last year in the settlement of a foreclosure lawsuit resulting from more than $700,000 in fines for code enforcement violations.

The city's plan has been to sell the building to a developer for $10, providing that the developer can make assurances of renovating the structure.

As part of the agreement, the developer will be required to post a performance bond.

The company's plan is to spend about $1.4 million to renovate the exterior of the building and turn the first two floors into commercial space.

The second phase would involve converting the upper floors into 35 condominiums, which would be marketed in Ontario, Canada, for about $200,000 each.

"If you do the first two floors as commercial and never do anything else, we'll be far ahead of where we are now," Commissioner Kathy Manry said.

Manry said her attitude has been jaded by years of proposals that didn't happen.

"This would be one of the greatest dreams in the world," she said.

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