Charlotte County tourism eagerly awaits opening of Sunseeker
As fall visitors arrive and winter visitors begin to make plans, local tourism officials are looking for good news as vacation rentals come back on line.
“I think we are seeing some pent-up demand,” said Sean Doherty, the tourism director for Charlotte County tourism, which is branded the Punta Gorda and Englewood Beach Convention and Visitor Bureau.
Looking at Charlotte County’s tourism development tax revenues, in August the county saw its first actual increase in revenue since Hurricane Ian, with an upward blip of 0.7 percent. TDC revenue is derived from the lodging tax, which is assessed on any rental of less than six months and one day. These bed tax funds support both the Charlotte County and Lee County visitor bureaus.
Rental properties coming back on the market on Don Pedro and Little Gasparilla are also helping Charlotte tourism figures, as many were off market after Ian, Doherty said.
While there is less COVID pent-up demand in the American market, Europeans are returning to the West Coast of Florida. To assist them, the Charlotte bureau now has representatives selling the region in both the U.K. and Germany.
In Lee County, reports from the most recent Fort Myers Tourism Development Council statistics in July show that bed tax revenue is down 51.1 percent, due to the number of rooms that were taken off the market by Hurricane Ian. The average daily rate in Lee County was $183.45, down 29.1 percent. Revenue per available room was $49.88, down 66.8 percent. At Fort Myers RSW airport, the picture is brighter, with traffic for July down only 0.1 percent.
Traffic at Punta Gorda Airport for August was down 7.11 percent, with 94,587 enplanements from Allegiant, the sole airline at Punta Gorda.
Both Punta Gorda and Charlotte County are awaiting the opening of Allegiant’s Sunseeker Resort, which is located across the Peace River from downtown. The airline has repeatedly delayed an official opening date, but they are now taking reservations beginning Dec. 15, 2023, according to their website. The resort is now offering rooms at $330, with some lower rates midweek.
While Doherty said Sunseeker will play a vital role in tourism once it comes online, its conventions and gatherings will be largely self-contained.
“Conventions will want to be under the same roof,” said Doherty.
The resort made further news with the Sept. 28 filing with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a 182-slip marina in front of the resort, surrounded by a 5.5 foot breakwater. The complex already includes 785 rooms and 20 “dining concepts” open to the public.
However, the question of the profit margins on Sunseeker Resort are hanging over the airline. This September, the company’s, CEO John Redmond suddenly left the company. He was replaced by Maury Gallagher, Allegiant’s board chairman and one of the company’s largest shareholders. In the background was a massive stock slide beginning in March of 2021, when shares were trading at around $253. They slipped to $129 a share in July of 2023, and now are currently at around $67.
The company, through their corporate office and their PR agency, did not respond to comments by presstime. Last month, Raymond James analyst Savanthi Syth wrote that the change “does not appear to signal a change in commitment to the opening of the Sunseeker Resort.”
Syth wrote that they “continue to believe the goal is to prove out the concept, enabling asset-light hotel management opportunities, with the possible eventual sale of the property (a few years out)” while noting a “fair share of skepticism around Mr. Redmond’s approach to the resort venture.”
Currently, Raymond James has a target price from $145 to $118 on the stock, believing that the risk-reward remains attractive for the airline, now around $67. It still has the best margins among the ultra-low-cost carriers.
Get a room!
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Got relatives coming? Do your guests like their own space? Keep them happy. Below, a few sample, midweek hotel and lodging rates from mid-November, as seen in popular local listing services. Note: On-island rooms can still be a bargain until season.
Boca Grande Hotel, $165
The Innlet, $168
Aloft, Sarasota, $186
Grande Flats, $235
Palmetto Inn, Airbnb, $245
The Gasparilla Inn, $380 and up
Waldorf-Astoria Orlando, $383
Cape Haze house, Airbnb, $393
Luminary, Fort Myers, $449
Westin Cape Coral, $462
Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota, $544
Ritz-Carlton, Naples, $946
Marriott Sanibel, sold out
The project has had persistent delays. As early as January 2019, Evercore Analyst Duane Pfenningworth had a testy exchange with Redmond in an earnings call. This was before COVID, and Hurricanes Ian and Idalia had delayed the project in myriad ways. The project broke ground in March 2019. Wrote Pfenningworth:
“Why are you spending any capital and company focus on golf course software and game rooms? I understand these things might be interesting experiments, but why do they need to be funded on thebalance sheet by Allegiant equity holders?”
The then-Chairman Maury Gallagher defended the project, saying that they were trying to articulate a “grand scheme of going more customer centric rather than tube centric. Filling up a tube is important, and we will do and focus on that tremendously. But, we want to have more relationships with more customers on an individual basis and understand where they spend their money.”
The project was also questioned early on by Hunter Keay, then an analyst with Wolf Research, and now CFO of the airline competitor startup, Avelo.
During the August 2023 analyst call, and before he departed, Redmond told analysts that the resort cost would total $695 million, with a $15 million expense this quarter. The company spelled out a targeted headcount of 1,200, with 5,700 employment applications within 70 miles of Port Charlotte and 7,000 applications from across 49 states. Redmond also reiterated the airline’s 18 percent operating margin, the highest in the industry, and made a promise that the airline will “not pursue any such projects without an equity partner.”
They reported bookings from 42 states, with 3,300 transient room nights at an average of $410 a night. That compares with some other luxury waterfront properties in Southwest Florida. For instance, while The Gasparilla Inn has limited availability, there are some cottage twin rooms available for $380 in mid-November and $520 into December.
Need tourism stats? For Charlotte County, see pureflorida.com. Lee County offers a tourism dashboard with real-time web traffic, and the latest room and rental statistics at visitfortmyers.com
