1,000-room resort expansion planned for Panama City Beach

By

Posted 12:18PM on Thursday, January 17, 2002

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. - While the depressed economy has the rest of the state scrambling to fill empty hotel rooms, a resort company has begun a 1,000-room expansion in this Florida Panhandle city. By the Sea Resorts is planning to spend more than $40 million in the next five years on four high-rises fronting the Gulf of Mexico next to two of its hotels. "We see Panama City Beach taking off some time in the future and we want to be well positioned when it does," Williams says. "This isn't going to be the Redneck Riviera forever." The first project began in November when ground was broken for a $9 million, 14-story hotel. It will be built in the Key West architecture style like the existing Beachcomber By the Sea and Beachbreak By the Sea. The new hotel, which has not been named, will feature 139 suites including seven luxury penthouses. It is scheduled to open in spring 2003. Almost all By the Sea hotel rooms are suites, as part of the company's strategy of catering to families. That coincides with efforts by tourism officials in Panama City Beach who are trying to remake a party-town image that helped it become the nation's leading Spring Break destination. "There are very few suite hotels on this beach and we stand to profit from that," Williams said. The next project is a 22-story tower that will become part of the Beachbreak. Construction is expected to begin in a few months with completion in 18 to 24 months. Plans also call for a 12-story hotel next to the Beachcomber followed by a 600-suite structure at the Beachbreak. Part of the Beachbreak would be demolished to make room for it.