Pensacola Beach helipad rejected, but new 12-story hotel still planned to open in 2024

Innisfree Hotels' plans to build a 12-story hotel next to Crabs on the Beach are still in full-motion, but they will not include a rooftop helipad.

At least not for now.

During Wednesday's Santa Rosa Island Authority meeting, the board voted unanimously against the helipad, with board member Karen Sindel absent from the meeting.

The conceptual plan presented to the SRIA earlier this year included renovation to the Hampton Inn on Pensacola Beach and a brand-new tower next door that would include 89 hotel rooms, 16 luxury condos, a pool deck and bar, a 250-space parking garage and the controversial rooftop helipad. The project was estimated to cost about $60 million and open in spring 2024.

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Board members largely agreed the helipad portion of the project would not be worth the trouble and could pose threats to public safety in such a highly populated area of Casino Beach.

"The use is so limited," SRIA Vice Chairman Liz Callahan said. "I don't see the public interest."

The helipad was never intended for commercial uses such as tourism-driven helicopter joy rides or charters to and from the airport, which the board counted as a factor against it. The helipad would also have been allowed a limited number of liftoffs each day, and SRIA Chairman Jerry Watson questioned who would enforce those limitations.

Although the helipad proposal did not earn the board's favor, the board did approve a combined lease agreement for properties on the 2 Via de Luna Drive, including Club Coco, UFO's Mini Golf and the Hampton Inn.

The Hampton Inn site is 4.67 acres and the mini golf site that will become the second tower is 1.37 acres.

The combined leases, owned by H&S Development, would allow for more occupancy in the new hotel because of the increased property size.

All board members at the meeting supported the combined lease agreement except for Thomas Campanella, who spoke out against the development.

Campanella said the board did not know of the intentions to build the tower when they granted permission for Innisfree Hotels Founder Julian MacQueen to purchase the small piece of property next to UFO's Mini Golf back in 2020.

He said they were under the impression the property would be used to make renovations to the existing golf course. In the new plan, the golf course would stay, but be partially relocated.

Although he said he should have known the space could be used for expansion, Campanella argued that if the board had been given all the information, their decision may have changed.

"It was never intended to be a hotel," Campanella said. "We are all at fault because it was never presented to us that way. ... (I) think all of us would have taken a different path."

Campanella advised the board that rejecting the lease combination was a way to send MacQueen back to the drawing board, since he would need to lower the new hotel's occupancy or scrap the idea altogether.

"This (the lease combination) is something we can control and be champions for the people," Campanella said.

SRIA Attorney Mary Jane Bass reminded the board that they had already approved the hotel's initial conceptual plan, and the development group was simply coming back to meet the condition that the leases be combined. The other crucial condition from the board was that a density increase be approved, which the board also did last October.

The SRIA at that time approved allowing an increase from 30 units per acre to 50 units per acre for the overall development.

"They have done what we asked them to do," Watson said of the project.

Rich Chism, vice president of development and asset management with Innisfree Hotels, said back in February that the location was ideal for guests to have walkability when visiting Pensacola Beach's local businesses.

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"We have seen a demand for new upscale hospitality project, and we intend to create a unique experience not found elsewhere along the Gulf Coast," Chism said last year. "The project is located in the commercial core area of Pensacola Beach, so we expect our guests to park and walk to the nearby shops and restaurants."

Campanella said part of the responsibility of the board is to manage growth on the island. He expressed concern that hotel could become an eyesore obstructing the view of the beach, in addition to stripping away the old Florida feel that Pensacola Beach has held onto.

"Enough is enough," Campanella said.

The board is still awaiting MacQueen's finalized plan for approval.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola Beach $60 million Innisfree hotel condo development moves ahead