St. Johns County Approves Beachwalk Margaritaville Expansion

On November 5, the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners approved an amended plan for the Beachwalk Compass by Margaritaville hotel, increasing the hotel room limit from 150 to 200. The revised proposal includes 68 short-term stay cottages, each with up to five bedrooms, and reduces the planned retail space. While the original draft included cottages with up to six bedrooms, the revised plan now defines each cottage as a hotel room, not based on the number of bedrooms. Despite a 3-2 vote in favor, the proposal faced opposition from commissioners Sara Arnold and Krista Joseph, who voiced concerns about the project's fit with the neighborhood, traffic, infrastructure, and the potential impact on the members-only Crystal Lagoon at the Beachwalk Club.

The project will include a five-story boutique hotel with 132 rooms on the southwest side of Beachwalk’s Crystal Lagoon. The cottages, which may be either owned by the hotel or sold individually, are designed to resemble those at the Margaritaville Orlando Resort. The developers, PEBB Enterprises and the Falcone Group, emphasized that the cottages will not operate as timeshares and cannot be listed on third-party rental platforms like Airbnb or Vrbo. In exchange for the increase in hotel rooms, commercial space in the Beachwalk development will be reduced by 7,900 square feet. The development is part of a broader effort to expand Margaritaville’s resort offerings, including ongoing expansions at the Orlando resort to meet rising demand.