Last spring, Pensacola Beach, the Santa Rosa Island Authority and the Escambia county commission debated and studied for weeks whether to allow the new lodging hybrid – the condo-hotel – on Pensacola Beach. One SRIA lost his position over it.
The Escambia County Commission approved an ordinance that allows condos to be called hotels and thereby sidestep the self-imposed building caps on Perdido Key and Pensacola Beach. Now people can buy individual units in hotels. There are restrictions – rooms can’t be larger than 850 sq. ft. and the owner must make the rooms available for rent for 40 weeks out of the year.
But funny thing has happened. There is no market for condo-hotels. Hotels are hot. Another case of Pensacola/Escambia County studying an issue to death while the economy passes it by.
The Panama City News Herald reports:
Despite a slump in condominium and single-family residential development across the area, the hotel is part of a niche real estate market that appears to be untouched by the current downward trends. From Thomas Drive to Middle Beach Road, at least five new franchise hotels have opened their doors or commenced construction in recent months. A similar number of these economy to mid-scale hotels also appeared along the U.S. 98 corridor in Panama City in the past year.