Blogging Pensacola Beach

Welcome to Blogging Pensacola Beach!

Cindy and Sonia will be guiding you on a bi-weekly tour of Pensacola Beach. We invite you to check back for events, real estate tours, and beach happenings.

YEA! The Bushwacker Festival is Back!

What is a Bushwacker? A tasty, icy adult milkshake, in its own authentic glass, which is native to Pensacola Beach. This weekend at Quietwater Beach Boardwalk the world- famous 20th annual Bushwacker and Music Festival presented by Capt'n Fun Beach Club is Back!! . Sister Hazel performed to a packed crowd on Staurday evening. It is great to see the beach back to normal after two years of devastating hurricanes.

THE FUTURE OF PENSACOLA BEACH

A project is in the works on Pensacola Beach that would add nearly 700 new hotel-condominium units and reshape the look of development in the beach's commercial core.Julian MacQueen announced the $500 million development project on Friday. It includes four phases to be built on 21 acres of land on both sides of Via de Luna. It also includes two hotels already built: the Hilton Garden Inn and the Hampton Inn.Another project, the Towers, which is under construction adjacent to the Hilton, is expected to be complete in the spring of 2007. It will add 94 suites and 15,000 square feet of meeting space.The new projects:· The old Beachside Resort has been cleared to make way for a 500,000-square-foot development that will include a 17-story tower and 206 rooms. The old Windjammer condominium units will be included in this development. Also included: 25,000 square feet of meeting space and a 1,000-seat ballroom.· Two 15-story towers on the Santa Rosa Sound side, behind Wings. This project likely won't begin until 2008 and also will include a 49-slip marina and boardwalk shops and boutique-style eateries.In the final phase of the project, the Hampton will get about 120 new rooms, additional parking, a fresh look and, possibly, a new brand name, said MacQueen, CEO and founder of Innisfree Hotels Inc.

Construction of the new buildings could be complete by 2010, he said."This project will bring the entire beach up to a new level with new expectations," MacQueen said. "We think this is the new core of Pensacola Beach. The revenues we'll generate will change the way the (Santa Rosa) Island Authority is operated."The development will add to the beach's stock of rooms. Before Hurricane Ivan struck on Sept. 16, 2004, there were more than 1,200 rooms. Today, there are about 754.

Last Friday, hotel developer Julian MacQueen announced that he plans to add another 700 rooms to the beach's commercial core over the next several years.The Pensacola Beach Resort will be a Caribbean-style, 620-room resort and water park built on a parcel that stretches from the Gulf of Mexico to Little Sabine Bay. That land includes the site of the former 153-room Holiday Inn, which was severely damaged by Hurricane Ivan on Sept. 16, 2004, and subsequently razed.The first phase of construction is anticipated to be complete by 2009."What I see is a destination resort," said Joe McCay, general manager of the old Holiday Inn and a spokesman for the new project. The resort will be built in three phases, McCay said:Phase 1 includes a 14-story hotel with pools. The water park, on the north side of Fort Pickens Road, possibly could be built during this phase. It would include an Olympic-size pool, a wave pool and a "lazy river" for inner-tube riders.Phase 2 will more than double the size of the hotel.Phase 3 will bring another tower and complete the 620-room resort.The lower two levels of the buildings will be used for parking. The main lobby will be about 30 feet above sea level, and the rooms begin on the fourth floor. "It's all going to be above surge, which is what we're trying to do -- protect it from a hurricane," McCay said. PNJ -