Beachwalk Compass by Margaritaville can move forward with increased hotel room limits

The St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners on Nov. 5 approved changes to plans for the Beachwalk Compass by Margaritaville hotel.

The modified proposal raises the limit of hotel rooms from 150 to 200, including 68 short-term stay cottages with up to five bedrooms.

Each cottage, not the number of bedrooms, is defined as a hotel room. An earlier draft of the revised proposal called for cottages with up to six bedrooms.

The vote was 3-2. Commissioners Henry Dean, Roy Alamo and Christian Whitehurst voted to approve the amended plans. Sara Arnold and Krista Joseph voted to deny the proposal, citing concerns with traffic, lack of infrastructure and overall fit with the neighborhood.

"It's a cute product. It's a cool hotel, but I think it's in the wrong place," said Joseph. "It's not consistent with the neighborhood."

Joseph also expressed concern that guests at the hotel and cottages could potentially access the Crystal Lagoon at the members-only Beachwalk Club.

"That lagoon is theirs," she said.

Arnold, commission chair, said the project is not "compatible" with the Beachwalk residential community.

"Quite frankly I think it's a wolf in sheep's clothing," she said. "It looks like a ploy to get short-term rentals in there and that's concerning to me."

The county's Planning and Zoning Agency recommended approval Oct. 17 with a 5-2 vote. Agency members Henry Green, Greg Matovina, Meagan Perkins, Jack Peter and Elvis Pierre voted yes. Members Judy Spiegel and Richard Hilsenbeck voted no.

In addition to the cottages, a five-story boutique hotel is planned to have 132 rooms on the southwest end of Beachwalk's Crystal Lagoon. The cottages can either be owned by the hotel or sold individually.

Project representative Ellen Avery-Smith of law firm Rogers Towers said they will have a similar look and feel to the cottages at the Margaritaville Orlando Resort Hotel.

She said the cottages cannot operate as timeshares or be occupied by the same person, family or group for more than three consecutive months. Avery-Smith told the board the hotel management company will oversee all cleaning, trash pickup, deliveries and landscaping regardless of ownership. They cannot be advertised on third-party websites, including Airbnb.com and Vrbo.com .

One parking space is allotted per room, she said.

Beachwalk Retail Center LLC, a partnership between PEBB Enterprises and Falcone Group of Boca Raton, will develop the hotel and cottages. It owns the land.

In exchange for the increase in rooms, plans call for a reduction in commercial use in Beachwalk by 7,900 square feet to 1,002,236 square feet on the property off County Road 210 about 2 miles east of Interstate 95.

While the Falcone Group developed the Margaritaville in Orlando near Walt Disney World, it will be PEBB's first ground-up hotel development. The 186-room Margaritaville Orlando Resort Hotel is being expanded by 75 rooms to accommodate demand.

The Orlando resort also has adjacent cottages and villas that can be purchased as vacation rentals or residences.

PEBB Enterprises is based in Boca Raton. The Falcone Group, also of Boca Raton, is a developer that has built projects throughout the nation for more than 40 years.