HYDE PARK - There's another hotel opening just off South Howard Avenue.

Unlike Bern's Epicurean Hotel project, which will include a luxury spa, restaurant and other amenities, the Hyde Park Hotel focuses on the theory of less is more.

Owner Jim McCready is renovating Bay Palms Studio Apartments, 2105 W. Bristol Ave., into efficiency hotel rooms with flat-screen televisions, kitchenettes and free Wi-Fi. The hotel is open during the transition and renovations.

McCready said he wants to cater to visitors to Tampa General Hospital, the nearby Temple David synagogue during the High Holy Days and others coming to the Hyde Park area who don't want to pay exorbitant hotel prices.

Most of the 24 rooms will have a bed, table and closet space. McCready said the base rate is $95, although he's offering a $79 grand opening rate.

'This is for the people who are more price-conscious,' he said. 'The people who do not want to spend $150 a night for a hotel.'

McCready said he took over the apartment building in 2001 when it was known as a flophouse and has spent more than $300,000 in renovations. After talking with a friend recently, he decided to convert to a hotel, allowing him to make more money.

All the rooms have new appliances, and McCready's office was redone, with a loft added as a place where his two children can play.

Ralph Steiner is doing the carpentry work for the hotel, including cedar closets.

A former truck driver, Steiner said he has stayed in plenty of small, cheap hotels but never one with as many amenities as Hyde Park Hotel, such as a kitchen.

'That's a big thing,' he said. 'That way you don't have to go out to a restaurant every night.'

Reporter Michael H. Samuels can be reached at (813) 835-2109 or msamuels@tampatrib.com.