Another Hotel Development on 30A At the Old Collaborations Site?

[Jim Tucker]

I heard the same thing from a business owner in the area. I was told that St. Joe expressed an interest in the property in December. St. Joe probably figured that if we had to vote on the lesser of the two evils, we would vote for the proposed St. Joe project. I was told it was going to be another hotel or Inn.

I just saw a commercial for Chateau 30A condos on cable. This could very well be a red herring.

Or they hope to pre-sell enough condos so they those develop those instead of a hotel and make more money.

BTW the commercial showed "beach access" as the dirt roads through Seagrove Eastern Lake neighborhood. It highlighted Williams and Dalton streets I think. There is no access at the end of those streets.

 

[lenzoe]

Despite some of the comments I've read regarding hotels on 30a, it really is a lot more convenient for a lot of people to stay in a hotel than it is to rent a condo for a couple of nights. I've owned a condo and had it on the rental market for a year and we've rented condos so I know a little bit about these things. And when we travel we usually stay in Hilton brand hotels. My husband is a Hilton Honors member and with a couple of clicks on the computer, voila, the reservation is booked.

Vacation rentals do take more effort to research and book. That's certainly one of the reasons they haven't replaced hotels and probably never will, despite VRBO/HomeAway's recent attempts to push VR owners to be more hotel-like.

My argument against this hotel is the same as against the Hampton Inn. It will provide convenience for some visitors, but at what cost to existing infrastructure, residents, owners, and neighborhoods?

I don't know the history of the 50-foot height limit, but if Walton County could implement that, it can implement more restrictions. Just imagine what what 30A would look like if it were all high rises. Now imagine what it will look like if there's a hotel row on 30A. It doesn't have to go that way.

 

[ddreneet]

I am in the process of looking for a place to stay in June. Do you have rental info on yours? Thank you.

 

[Beach Runner]

We don't rent our new home, as is true for many of our neighbors. I have PTSD from the disrespect that renters imposed upon our previous home. We had many guests who treated our home like they would treat their own, but they were in the minority. The rest of them didn't impose permanent damage, but basically we spent every trip to that home assessing and repairing damage/loss from renters. Not fun. No vacation for us.

 

[steel1man]

We don't rent our new home, as is true for many of our neighbors. I have PTSD from the disrespect that renters imposed upon our previous home. We had many guests who treated our home like they would treat their own, but they were in the minority. The rest of them didn't impose permanent damage, but basically we spent every trip to that home assessing and repairing damage/loss from renters. Not fun. No vacation for us.

I had some one take the TV power cord. Seriously !!! Good news I don't ever live in that condo just a rental.

 

[Paula]

I am in the process of looking for a place to stay in June. Do you have rental info on yours? Thank you.

We've actually been very lucky with our renters in both of our cottages since we started renting in 2003. They've taken good care of our cottages, and out winter snowbird renters have been kind enough to volunteer to do small maintenance when they're there. So, we're thankful. The only week we have left this summer is the week 30-June 6 so feel free to private message me if you're interested. We have weeks in August available as well.

 

[Beach Runner]

We don't rent our new home, as is true for many of our neighbors. I have PTSD from the disrespect that renters imposed upon our previous home. We had many guests who treated our home like they would treat their own, but they were in the minority. The rest of them didn't impose permanent damage, but basically we spent every trip to that home assessing and repairing damage/loss from renters. Not fun. No vacation for us.

The weirdest thing is that one rental group took the pillow shams off our beds. Also weird was a group that broke the glass on our oven. How does one do that? We had to buy a $1000 pool pump because our pool was filled with balloons. The most annoying thing was when one set of renters broke the roughly two-year-old dishwasher so that the control panel didn't work. My theory is that either a child sat on the dishwasher door or some drunk person fell on it. The electronic panel was disconnected in the whatever process. We had renters coming in for the next week. The renters complained that the dishwasher wasn't working and demanded money for their inconvenience. We were there the previous week and dishwasher was fine. Then we knew that the next group of renters would demand a refund for being inconvenienced by no dishwasher. So we just decided to buy whatever dishwasher was available, regardless of cost. It's so peaceful to arrive at our new home and not worry about renters raping our home. The house is not as big and doesn't have the views, but the tradeoff is that we don't have to worry about abuse, we don't have to change out the nice linens for rental linens, and we don't have to clear out our pantry and refrigerator every time we leave. Love it. And love the neighborhood.

 

[Beach Runner]

Vacation rentals do take more effort to research and book. That's certainly one of the reasons they haven't replaced hotels and probably never will, despite VRBO/HomeAway's recent attempts to push VR owners to be more hotel-like.

My argument against this hotel is the same as against the Hampton Inn. It will provide convenience for some visitors, but at what cost to existing infrastructure, residents, owners, and neighborhoods?

I don't know the history of the 50-foot height limit, but if Walton County could implement that, it can implement more restrictions. Just imagine what what 30A would look like if it were all high rises. Now imagine what it will look like if there's a hotel row on 30A. It doesn't have to go that way.

We have had no problems with finding a short-term rental in the summer with a dog. While we were building our new home, we stayed at Hidden Beach Villas in Seagrove (as well as at my sister's and brother-in-law's non-rental home in Seagrove --thank y'all again). The villas aren't luxurious, but they have full kitchens, washers and dryers in each unit, and best of all the beach walkover is right there. We have also stayed at La Pensione in Rosemary, but those rooms are small. We love the vibe there, but I wouldn't want to stay there for a week. We really don't need Interstate-Highway-type hotels on 30A. 30A has a a cool vibe to it. Don't mess up that vibe and turn it into Destin Part Deux.

 

[seabythegrove]

Isn't this thread about a hotel on 30A?

 

[kayti elliott]

If I stay somewhere for just a weekend I'd rather stay at a hotel. Renting a house or a condo for just a couple of nights is a pain and I can't afford to stay at a place like the Pearl or the Watercolor Inn.