ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The music is back at Jimmy B’s Beach Bar, and the staff served the first customers in more than a year on Thursday.
“We finally got to that moment of we’re opening, and we’re bringing Beachcomber and Jimmy B’s back to the community and to the visitors,” Shaun Kwiatkowski, the managing director of The Beachcomber Resort, said. “So, it was a lot of excitement, little nerves, little butterflies to get back into operations, but super excited.”
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Dig deeper:
Hurricane Helene’s four to five feet of storm surge tore through the resort. They had to restore the hotel rooms, meeting and event spaces and hotel lobby on the first floor, and the pool and courtyard. About half of the hotel is brand new.
“Throughout the entire courtyard, we redid all the landscaping. So, from the sod to the ground cover, to the trees, everything has been really rebuilt from scratch. And then the hotel rooms, they were completely gutted down to the studs. We had four to five feet of water on the Gulf side, so we had to strip those down to the studs and rebuild the first floor guest rooms. So, you really have brand new guest rooms from the floors to the walls, to the furniture, to the air conditioner, everything’s brand new,” Kwiatkowski said.
He said they also had to replace the bar equipment, audio systems and TVs at Jimmy B’s.
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What they’re saying:
“It has been an emotional ride, you know, a physical ride, a mental ride, but I think up to this moment right now is what it’s all about and, you know, you have to step back and take some time to think about what we accomplished, and I think that reward of seeing customers on property today just made it all worth it. It was tough getting there, but seeing the customers and smiling faces, we know that long road was well worth the wait,” Kwiatkowski said.
Kwiatkowski said they planted a tree on the property on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene to remember that ride.
“We planted a Lantin Palm, the pre-opening team, with a plaque just signifying, you know, here’s the effort and here’s the resiliency, and ultimately, that palm is going to sit there. It’s going to have the plaque and people walk by it and remember what’s taken place over the past year and what it took to get us here,” he said.
The resort and beach bar, which has been around for more than 50 years, held a ribbon cutting with the Tampa Bay Beaches Chamber of Commerce and Visit St. Pete Clearwater on Thursday.
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“We kind of get a two for one with Jimmy B’s coming back online as well,” Brian Lowack, the president-CEO of Visit St. Pete-Clearwater, said. “This is a local favorite. It’s also a favorite of our visitors, and it’s one of those places that you can come on a Friday or Saturday night, and you see visitors, locals listening to music, dancing, having a great time. It’s that quintessential St. Pete Beach experience.”
“Beachcomber creates memories for all of our customers, whether it’s just a hotel customer or a Jimmy B’s customer. So, we’re bringing those memories back, and we’re making new memories, I think, for the local community, and that’s a piece that I’ve talked to the team a lot about is, yes, we are opening a hotel. Yes, we’ll have customers come into our business, but think about the customers leaving our hotel and going out to the smaller community businesses. That’s a huge impact to them, and we’re happy to support those local businesses and start to bring more people back to St. Pete Beach,” Kwiatkowski said.
He said their 60 employees are all returning staff members.
What’s next:
Kwiatkowski says heading into the weekend, the hotel is about 70% occupied. Jimmy B’s will be open from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. with live music daily.
The Source: This story was written with information provided by the Beachcomber Resort staff, Jimmy B’s staff and VSPC.