Margaritaville resort on Fort Myers Beach, a testament to new Florida building codes
It's the newest resort on Fort Myers beach, and it has already gone through several hurricanes and seems to have escaped unscathed.
Margaritaville is not far from the white sandy shoreline on Fort Myers beach, dead center to brunt any storm.
The resort is proving it can handle mother nature's fury, having gone through hurricanes Helene and Milton in a span of just two weeks.
The infrastructure and design of the resort is built to absorb the impacts of a storm, and it could be the very design plan other people look at when rebuilding so close to the Gulf.
"If the island washes away, we stand in the middle of the ocean like an oil rig," said Chris Flagg, Chief Investment Officer.
The resort has gone through its fair share of hurricanes already, even bracing hurricane Ian during construction.
"The building was designed so the storm surge flows through the building. The building doesn't block the surge. When you get building damage it's when you block the surge and the building has to take the brunt force of that surge, from that standpoint everything did what it was supposed to do, " said Flagg.
Margaritaville is built different, able to withstand impacts from a major hurricane.
"It goes back to the foundations. So, the foundations go 85 to 100 feet down in the ground and the whole building was designed to be on those foundations," said Flagg.
Other buildings on the beach destroyed by hurricane Ian are taking similar approaches like the Beach Bar.
"Poles driven into the ground, grade beams and then concrete structure going up. The first floor is 22 feet above ground," said Dan Adams with Stevens Construction..
Adams says building back stronger and up to Florida codes is what will save future building from being destroyed.
"The new codes work. After Ian, if you drive along the beaches Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel the newer buildings built in the last 5 to 10 years actually did very well in the storm, it was the older building that were destroyed," said Adams.
The Florida building code is simple, build back higher, stronger and more resilient.
The end goal is less damage and repairs, and ensuring businesses can open after the storm without major repairs.
"It's the storm surge that's new. So, FEMA plus one is what everything is built to now, which gets us up high enough," said Adams.
"Milton hit Wednesday night, Thursday morning and we're already open 75 percent of our businesses and 100 percent of our guest rooms are open Sunday night. Obviously, we're testament from having survived Ian and now Helene and now Milton, that the current standards can withstand some of the fiercest storms another nature can send us," said Flagg.
The Beach Bar is expected to open in about a year. Developers say if everyone builds to code, after any storm, businesses should be ready to open after making some minor cleanup repairs.
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