Before opening its doors to guests on December 15, 2023, Sunseeker Resort in Port Charlotte endured damage from both Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Idalia, building delays due to COVID19, a fire, and ever-increasing construction costs, over the past four years.
This first luxury resort property from Sunseeker Resorts, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Allegiant Airlines, currently boasts 785 rooms, 20 restaurants and bars, a spa and salon, 60,000 square feet of meeting space, a harbor walk and an 18-hole golf course, as well as a waterfront promenade, rooftop and waterfront pools, a state-of-the-art fitness center, and seven retail shops, all spanning across 22 waterfront acres.
One week after its long-awaited opening, I spent a long weekend there. The manager of the onsite steakhouse, Maury’s, told me that this was only Phase 1 of the resort’s development, with 2 more on the horizon.
The resort is hiring over 1,200 employees, with more than half working in the food and beverage arena. One bartender told me he worked at three locations onsite, and he also does equipment setup and service at these locations. While many employees come from the immediate Charlotte County area, others come from as far as Arcadia and Cape Coral.
And while most people I spoke with were excited about what this resort means to the future growth of Charlotte County, one young man was not as enthusiastic.
Recently returning to Port Charlotte after a stint in the Marines, he shared, “I grew up here—hunting, fishing, playing in the woods. Because of my military service, I had the opportunity to visit 13 countries. I thought this was the best place in the world to grow up, to live. So that’s why I came back here.”
He went on, “So while I see the opportunity a place like this resort gives to the future of Charlotte County, it will never again be the same place where I grew up, and my friends and I agree, it’s sad that we’ve lost what it was.”
So Sunseeker Resort is one more example of how the prosperity of the future comes at the expense of the small-town feel of the past.
Karen Moore is a contributing partner for WGCU and the publisher of SWFL Business Today.
