It’s now been more than a month since the Category 4 Hurricane Ian initially made landfall on Florida’s southwestern coast, causing devastation and destruction to the area. Hotel owners and operators in the area have had to deal with damage to not only their properties, but also their communities.
Hoteliers across Florida have used their resources to crowdsource funds and resources for displaced residents and staff in need.
The Pink Shell Beach Resort & Marina on Fort Myers Beach, Florida, started a GoFundMe fundraiser for staff members affected by the storm and reached its $120,000 goal this week. Robert Boykin, owner and operator of the resort, said some employees “lost everything” in the storm.
He said the people of Florida are resilient, but the whole situation is a tragedy.
“To have to have the whole island evacuated for search and rescue, that puts things in perspective. A property loss is one thing — nowhere near as devastating as losing your life. It’s going to fundamentally change the place,” he said.
Mainsail Lodging & Development, a Tampa-based management and development company, held a “Raise the Roof for Hurricane Ian Relief” night at five of its rooftop bars and raised $12,000 for the Harry Chapin Food Bank of Southwest Florida. Mainsail also hosted a community rally with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, where they fed more than 850 people and handed out supplies such as tarps, said President and Founder Joe Collier.
“It was a great event; it felt good,” he said. “Our vendors and partners came through for us big time, so it felt good to do that.”
Collier said Mainsail’s portfolio had some disruptions due to guests canceling reservations, but it avoided any material damage, even at its downtown Fort Myers property — the Luminary Hotel & Co. — because it’s a new structure that’s built higher. Helping the community out was of vital importance to the company.
“We were so grateful [to avoid damage] and we wanted to provide an opportunity for people to give, to help out down there. People are always looking for a way to help out their brothers and sisters in Florida. It’s just really been nice,” he said.
Bharat Patel, national vice chairman of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association and a Sarasota, Florida, hotel owner, said he drove down to Fort Myers with a few other AAHOA members to deliver generators, flashlights, water and food when the storm hit. The next day, all AAHOA members available in Florida convened with those mostly unaffected to provide warm food, aid and advice.
“You just get together, you sit and you figure out what’s going on next,” he said. “We did a blast email about public adjusters and crisis management, so that can help … people because they’re not sure what to do.”
Patel also met with Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson to discuss charitable works and how to go about providing help to affected hotels. He said everyone chips in when dealing with a situation like this, doing all they can to provide comfort to those in need.
“Community coming together — that does happen. I hope it happens everywhere, but I think in Florida, we kind of know,” he said.
State of Recovery
Boykin said he has endured seven hurricanes, and Ian caused more destruction than all of the others combined. The Pink Shell didn’t suffer any structural damage, but the ground level flooded, the roofing was damaged and its marina floated off the piers. The water surge ranged up to 18 feet high, he said.
“You always hear about these things, and we’ve had surge events before, but typically it’s a foot or two. This was a wall of water,” he said.
An even bigger problem than the damage is the lack of power, Boykin said. Six weeks after the storm, the resort was still using expensive backup generators to make up for lost power. Collier said Mainsail’s Fort Myers property was also without power for days.
As soon as the storm hit, he contacted the company that built its marina and ordered another one. While the newly built marina should be ready to install in January, the necessary power pedestals won’t be ready for another six months due to supply-chain issues.
Boykin said the Pink Shell is going to bring back each aspect of the resort as it’s ready, including converting its one food outlet that survived into a three-meal restaurant. As for reopening the resort to guests, he said, “with electricity and water, we can house people, and that’s our plan.”
“We’ll be able to provide people some degree of hospitality. I guess that’s part of the story,” he said. “The shift is taking us from being a resort to being a hotel for a period of time and providing housing needs to people who are either displaced because their home was destroyed … or it could be contract-type folks who are doing work.”
Collier said downtown Fort Myers seems to be in good shape, with most hoteliers working to reopen before the high-demand holiday seasons. The Pink Shell, which has been closed since late September, hopes to reopen some rooms before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Both Collier and Boykin said Fort Myers Beach, however, still has a lot of work ahead of it. Boykin said he met with a group from Texas who came to the island to help with the restoration work, and they said they’re planning on staying for the next five years due to all the damage that needs repairing.
“There are a handful of hotels that will come out of this and be renting rooms. There’s a few on the island that we know of, but it’s going to be a while before inventory gets back to anywhere near where it was,” Boykin said.