{"id":279448,"date":"2026-05-21T13:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/279448\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T13:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:13:11","slug":"sunset-beach-pavilion-will-reopen-after-helene-milton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/279448\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunset Beach Pavilion will reopen after Helene, Milton"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. \u2014 In just a few weeks, Sunset Beach Pavilion on Treasure Island will reopen after being closed for nearly two years.<\/p>\n<p>Hurricanes Helene and Milton forced the beachfront venue to shut down, and with its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mytreasureisland.org\/visitors\/city_projects\/sunset_beach_pavilion_reconstruction.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">official reopening scheduled for June 4<\/a>,\u00a0it is coming back just in time for summer.<\/p>\n<p>Restoration efforts started in January, and renovations are still underway.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As we all know, Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc on this island,&#8221; said Treasure Island Public Information Officer Jason Beisel.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The whole island went underwater and if you&#8217;re this close to the water, such as the Sunset Beach Pavilion, you&#8217;re going to receive some damage,&#8221; he added. &#8220;And so, that water came up, it damaged the boards. It damaged the railings. It took the stairs out and it piled up a lot of debris.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_0112-202_1778882710532.jpeg\" alt=\"The newly renovated Sunset Beach Pavilion will officially reopen June 4. (Spectrum News\/Justina Rhines)\" class=\"hashed-image image\" img-data-alignment=\"center\" img-data-width=\"percent-hundred\" loading=\"lazy\" img-data-caption=\"The newly renovated Sunset Beach Pavilion will officially reopen June 4. (Spectrum News\/Justina Rhines)\" img-data-wrap-text=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The newly renovated Sunset Beach Pavilion will officially reopen June 4. (Spectrum News\/Justina Rhines)<\/p>\n<p>Beisel said that when he first saw the pavilion after Hurricane Helene, he thought it was a total loss.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It looked like the place was off its foundation,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But it was after we examined it more, it wasn&#8217;t off its foundation, so that&#8217;s one reason we were able to save it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Despite the destruction, this treasured spot survived.<\/p>\n<p>After working with FEMA, Beisel said that it made the most sense for the city to reopen the space in a more sustainable way.<\/p>\n<p>The city redid the floors, railings and bathrooms. In all, he said it took about $350,000 to get the pavilion back up and running.<\/p>\n<p>According to Beisel, the pavilion&#8217;s character remains the same, it just has a cleaner look.<\/p>\n<p>The pavilion has been around since 2003 and has welcomed many guests.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Pavilion-201_1778882710272.jpeg\" alt=\"Damage captured from Hurricane Helene. (Treasure Island)\" class=\"hashed-image image\" img-data-alignment=\"center\" img-data-width=\"percent-hundred\" loading=\"lazy\" img-data-caption=\"Damage captured from Hurricane Helene. (Treasure Island)\" img-data-wrap-text=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Damage to the Sunset Beach Pavilion seen after Hurricane Helene. (Photo: Treasure Island)<\/p>\n<p>Beisel said the revenue from renting out the space helps maintain the building and fund different programs in the city&#8217;s Parks &amp; Recreation Department.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Whether it&#8217;s a civic association coming out here, whether it&#8217;s a neighborhood event, mostly you&#8217;ll see weddings out here, because, I mean, you can&#8217;t beat this view to have a wedding,&#8221; he said. &#8220;After people heard the pavilion was opening back up, we&#8217;ve already got people reserving the place and people already inquiring about getting this place rented.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Craig Rothschild, owner of The Roth Hotel, said he is excited to see the return. His hotel is about one block away from the pavilion.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The first wedding that they&#8217;re going to do in the pavilion, they&#8217;re going to rent out The Roth Hotel, so we&#8217;re really excited about it,&#8221; said Rothschild, whose hotel is about a block away from the pavilion. &#8220;And hopefully there&#8217;ll be more weddings to come.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_0122-202_1778882710602.jpeg\" alt=\"The view from the Sunset Beach Pavilion. (Spectrum News\/Justina Rhines)\" class=\"hashed-image image\" img-data-alignment=\"center\" img-data-width=\"percent-hundred\" loading=\"lazy\" img-data-caption=\"The view from the Sunset Beach Pavilion. (Spectrum News\/Justina Rhines)\" img-data-wrap-text=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The view from the Sunset Beach Pavilion. (Spectrum News\/Justina Rhines)<\/p>\n<p>The wedding party was able to secure blocks of rooms during a typically slower month of June.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s great to be full this time of year,&#8221;\u00a0Rothschild said. &#8220;You know, February, March, April, that&#8217;s the busy time of year,&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s much needed after Rothschild witnessed the wrath of the hurricanes at his hotel. He said water reached up to 3 feet in all of the rooms, and they had to gut each and every one of them.<\/p>\n<p>The Roth Hotel reopened a year ago, and Rothschild said it\u2019s ready for some company.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re really happy that they&#8217;re going to be back,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>For Beisel, the pavilion&#8217;s reopening signals strength within the city.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is another sign that we&#8217;re getting back to where we were pre-storm, and we&#8217;re actually moving forward to be more resilient and get more development in the city,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So, it&#8217;s a sign that things are coming along.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The pavilion\u2019s grand opening is June 4, and Beisel said the plan is to have a party on the beach with food trucks and live music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TREASURE ISLAND, Fla. \u2014 In just a few weeks, Sunset Beach Pavilion on Treasure Island will reopen after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[274,17174,3125,1802,115438,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278],"class_list":["post-279448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-top-stories","tag-app-weather-stories","tag-hurricane-helene","tag-hurricane-milton","tag-justina-rhines","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}