Timbers Resorts Chief Executive Officer Greg Spencer says immediate plans for the Captiva Island, Fla. resort include stabilizing facilities, then reopening the hotel and main swimming pool by September. Long-term goals will bring reconceptualization of the resort’s food-and-beverage operations and golf course, plus the building of amenities-rich Captiva Club.
Timbers Resorts Chief Executive Officer Greg Spencer shared the short- and long-term goals for the South Seas Island Resort on Captiva at the Sanibel & Captiva Islands (Fla.) Chamber of Commerce’s meeting on Jan. 18.
Hurricane Ian reinforced goals that Timbers Resorts had already set to bring the South Seas Island Resort on Captiva to four- or five-star standards with a focus on the environment and a sense of place, Spencer told the Sanibel & Captiva Islands Chamber of Commerce during its meeting.
The storm hit exactly 364 days after the global resort management firm purchased the resort.
“We plan to make South Seas the No. 1 multi-generation resort in the U.S. That’s our goal,” Spencer, who grew up in Florida and visited Sanibel and Captiva often, said. “You’ll see it in everything we do—a focus on Captiva. That’s why people are coming here. It’s the thrill of driving across the causeway. It’s the beauty of Pine Island Sound.”
He told the chamber members, who met jointly with the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association at the luncheon, that the immediate plans for the resort include stabilizing facilities, then reopening the hotel and main swimming pool by September.
Long-term goals will bring reconceptualization of the resort’s food and beverage operations and golf course, plus the building of amenities-rich Captiva Club. Rather than keeping all amenities congregated at the island’s northernmost end, the new site map will spread them throughout the 330-acre property. The resort is also setting up a foundation so owners and guests can contribute to the local environment.
“I want to be able to be a funding source for sea turtles, restoring sea grass,” Spencer said. “If that starts happening, along with amenities, it will help everything on the resort. It will help all of Captiva and the businesses on Sanibel.”
Timbers Resorts already demonstrated its commitment to community last year by commissioning a vulnerability assessment for all of Captiva to determine steps needed for future resiliency efforts and to facilitate grant monies. After Ian, it turned land formerly occupied by decrepit employee housing into a landing pad and transported some of the first recovery equipment to the island.
“We estimate we had eight-and-a-half feet of storm surge,” he said. “We took a pretty good hit. Almost every building on property needs a new roof.”
All of the resort’s offices and support functions were totally destroyed, and retail buildings like the former Doc Ford’s Rum Bar & Grille were rendered likely unsalvageable. The marina on the surface looked good, but divers have been cleaning up below the waterline, and gas pumps were destroyed.
Golf course and water park renovations will be designed with the company’s multi-generational blueprint in mind. Timbers Resorts will assist homeowner associations with their restoration, as well. It is aiming to raise the reputation of South Seas to the level of its 16 other resorts.
“We look forward with eager anticipation to South Seas’ comeback as the island gem it once was, and even more,” chamber President and Chief Executive Officer John Lai said. “I think Greg has instilled a sense of hope and pride in us all today.”
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