The Background on Jekyll

I wrote this post a while ago but here it is again, with some updates...

What happens when cronies of a Governor get appointed by the Governor himself to an authority that oversees a public park which happens to be an island developers have coveted for years? You get the fight over the direction of the development of Jekyll Island that’s going on now.

I sincerely believe that the Jekyll Island Authority thought they could make this little deal without garnering much protest. Earlier last year the JIA suggested that the South End of the state park, which is undeveloped and extremely ecologically sensitive, be open to private developers. Public and political reaction was intense; the authority eventually backed down. We thought we had won. Then to the surprise of many, they unveiled a partnership proposal by Linger Longer Communities to build over 400 condos/timeshares and three brand new hotels on a stretch of the main beach, which currently has only a convention center and some public parking lots on it.

By law, only 35% of the island may be developed. Three hotels have closed within the last few years, prompting a huge drop in available rooms. The JIA has, with a great deal of public support, encouraged the re-development of these properties; most people agree that accommodations on the island need to be better and are in favor of responsible redevelopment. Not so much the idea of putting a giant development on the main beach. 

But lost in the LLC vs. the public argument over the town center is that there is already large-scale redevelopment going on. Trammel Crow is building on the old Buccaneer property, offering 300 hotel rooms/suites and 127 one-two-three and four bedroom condo units, more than doubling the accommodations of the former hotel. 

The former Holiday Inn property, which had 205 rooms, was demolished and, according to this, will be a 138-room Jekyll Island Oaks hotel, run as a sister property to the Jekyll Island Club. In earlier reports it was also said to include 60 rooms available in "upsacle cottages" yet I can't confirm if that part made it into the final project. It's "slated to be finished in time for a June 2008 beachfront opening."

The Clarion Oceanfront Inn and Suites (next to Villas by the Sea) will raze the southern portion of the existing hotel and build a multi-story suites-type option in its place. The remaining units have been approved by the JIA to be converted into condos, similar to Villas by the Sea. It currently has 178 units but it seems they’ll be adding rooms.

The former Ramada property, which had 110 rooms, is in litigation; it's being fought over by Trammell Crow and, you guessed it, Linger Longer Communities. Two hundred condos have been proposed. Last year LLC also announced it’s intention to purchase the Days Inn property (I assumed they had done that but I’m not positive they went through with it).

And now, there’s the LLC proposal. LLC wants to build new construction on the main beach. One person claimed that the proposal is in a footprint of original development. Technically, yes it is; there is a convention center and 4 parking lots that line a bike trail right at the edge of the dunes. Jim Langford, the LLC spokesman, actually said the convention center takes up a lot of that space. It takes up about a forth of it. The rest is open oceanfront that you can see as you drive along Beachview Drive. No houses. No condos. No hotels until further up the road. It’s incredibly rare these days.

In developer-profit-world, people who can pay top dollar for rooms and condos get the prime real estate. The “economy hotel” that’s an average of $108 a night (yearly average, not seasonal) is a block away from the beach. Day visitors, it’s proposed, can park in a parking lot less than a quarter of a mile away rather than right next to the beach. 

So far as I know (at least it’s not on the website), there’s been no plan to accommodate for more traffic on the island other than “build more roads.” They haven’t explained how they’ll be able to keep people off the dunes if 400+ condos and 3 hotels are added to this “small” area. They haven’t addressed in any meaningful way the effect that this addition will have on the turtle nesting grounds. And they have yet to explain why they couldn’t just propose to rebuild a site they have already bid on which is, at present, a hotel on the beach (the Days Inn).

Senator Jeff Chapman, in response to public input, issued a formal resolution calling for the protection of Jekyll Island’s open beach from commercial exploitation. You can sign it here.

LLC followed by a media blitz in which Langford questioned the Senator’s justification and, classically, painted a picture of Senator Chapman as a misguided individual who has failed to recognize the truth about the proposed Jekyll oceanfront village. Langford described the proposed Jekyll village as a small community bordering just only eight percent of the total beachfront area, and a project which would not obstruct the beach in any way, shape or form. However, there are before and after maps on savejekyllisland.org that tell the real story. And seriously, how can you build between the road and the beach and not obstruct the beach?

Chapman has come under attack not only from LLC but- you guessed it- from the Governor himself.  From what I can tell, the majority of support for the project continues to be from the people who stand to make money off of it. A developer who lost out in the bidding process estimated that his profit would have been $500 million. And you know what? Until LLC makes public how much they expect to make, I'm going to assume it's at least $500 million also. 

A $500 million private profit off public land. It’s pretty much a shameless give away of the only beach front Georgia has left that’s pristine and undeveloped.