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Smiling JOe

SoWal Expert
Nov 18, 2004
31,648
1,773
From another thread, I had a thought.
Mermaid said:
All that development can only significantly change the character of 30-A and its enivrons. :sosad:

I have heard no talk about this, even as a rumor, but someone brought it up and I would like you to consider the potential effects of such a thing built in SoWal. Even if you have not been to a Ritz-Carlton for afternoon Tea or a night of rest, I am sure that most of you are familiar with its world class service and appointments. When I first moved here, I remember one guy telling me that a Ritz was going in with a golf course and the works between 30-A and Hwy 98. (This happens to be State Forest land where he is talking about.) I have a feeling he heard something about the Ritz gas station/convenience stores in the area. When I heard this, I must say that I felt more comfortable about my decision to buy in this area. There is no such thing built at this time.

Anyway, I ask you to picture a Ritz-Carlton hotel with the works located north of Hwy 98 in the heart of SoWal. Possible to visualize? Definitely. Can Ritz afford it? Sure. I ask you to ponder the effects on this community if Ritz-Carlton created such a thing. Today, I still think of SoWal mostly as an undiscovered treasure, even though more homes are completed by the hour. If a world-renown establishment, such as the Ritz came here, how undiscovered do you think we would be? The potential effects of such a thing would be unbelievable, in my opinion.

From you, I would enjoy reading what you think would happen to the area if Ritz-Carlton created a world-class hotel here in SoWal. I encourage you to explore all avenues from the effects on real estate to the effects of the community and our environment.

Anyone?
 
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Mermaid

picky
Aug 11, 2005
7,871
335
I'll bite on this one (since I made you think of it in a way :blink: ) I'm all about mixed emotions on this one since I am long familiar with the Ritz. For many, many years my sister's brother-in-law was the evening manager for the Ritz in Boston and we'd often go there. In my top 5 of "Best Meals I've Ever Eaten in My Life" the Ritz is No. 1, and that was for a meal eaten more than 20 years ago (yes, it was that good).

What I know about the Ritz is that it's synonomous with world-class service, which is something everyone knows, but also that they don't have a world-class supercilious attitude to go with it. I like the Ritz in Boston, and I also like the one in Naples (the old one), nearby where my parents live. Two very different Ritzes in very different settings, but both of them make me feel comfortable. This matters a lot to me because there's something about attitude that gets my hackles up! I don't like places that are nice to people only when they have "the look." I don't have the time of day for that. So for that reason, having a Ritz hotel on the Panhandle would be wonderful. They are experts in the hospitality business, IMO, and they'd be an asset to the beach. And honestly, I don't think Ritz prices are any more expensive than what the Inn over a Watercolor charges!

But on the other side of the coin...30-A is already so gentrified. Everything, even loveable scruffy Grayton Beach, is getting gentrified. Having a Ritz would super-accelerate that. That's the downside of introducing such a distinct name like theirs to the mix.
 

WaltonUndercurrent

Beach Lover
Mar 3, 2005
132
0
I think it would be a good thing. South Walton really changed several years ago. I've run into a lot of people who've only been coming here since the early nineties, and don't really know the way things "used to be." The irony is that most of these people are mourning the loss of what was artificially created in the last ten years by the very developers that their blaming for having changed things - the idea that this is a small, family oriented community with cute shops where everybody knows each other, wears big sun hats with yello ribbons and chats with their neighbors across their white picket fences over rasberry sun tea, etc. The way things "used to be" is actually more like indestructable cinder block homes, no decent restaurants, no grocery stores, no bicycle paths, no sushi, no wine bars, no outdoor concerts, no art fairs, no crushed shell paths, no sea kayaks, few bicycles, lots of pickups, beer and tabletop hibachis. I think what's done is done and has been for a while - and I do miss the way things really used to be.

So, I think a Ritz would be good. And a big announcement along those lines would probably jump start the real estate and local economy after a slow down. We need some exciting news that actually turns out to be true.
 
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beachmouse

Beach Fanatic
Dec 5, 2004
3,504
741
Bluewater Bay, FL
I couldn't see them coming in unless ther were direct gulf front. Their image is based on being best of the best, and if they don't have their own beach, they wouldn't be.

Are there any big parcels that would be direct gulf front and big enough left for their kind of project?
 

Philip_Atlanta

Beach Lover
Mar 1, 2005
140
1
www.rosemaryrental.com
When they built the Watercolor Inn, I had been told by Watercolor folks that they had been in discussions with Ritz to run that hotel, but it didn't pan out. Who knows..

I personally think the concept would be great for the area.
 

Smiling JOe

SoWal Expert
Nov 18, 2004
31,648
1,773
hutch said:
Rumor is Chris Ruth Steak House is going in at Howard's Group Grand BLVB.
Maybe just a rumor!

Ruth's Chris Steak House is something I could handle over there. By the way, for those of you who haven't been around in the last month and a half, The Howard Group has cleared all of the land west of the Publix in Sandestin, and it looks like they are ready to begin some more building. The new hotels are still working toward completion. That area of Sandestin keeps getting closer. Has anyone heard any other names of businesses slated for the Howard Group's property in Sandestin?
 

Smiling JOe

SoWal Expert
Nov 18, 2004
31,648
1,773
Robert said:
Future Locations:
http://www.ritzcarlton.com/corporate/about_us/upcoming_locations.asp


Maybe after the airport but who knows?

They put one here:
http://www.ritzcarlton.com/resorts/reynolds_plantation/

and here:
http://www.ritzcarlton.com/resorts/amelia_island/

It would definately be good for the real estate market.

If you have not been to Reynolds Plantation, you should. They put that club, along with several others in the middle of nowhere. It just happens to be Lake-front on Lake Oconee. That place went boom over night. When Ritz came in to run the new hotel, it continued to go crazy. Ritz worked together with a private country club, Reynolds Plantation to pull off one amazing place. All it really takes is one world renown establishment to come in and the place will go crazy overnight, even at today's prices, you will not find anything for sale.
 
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