Tarpon Lodge on Pine Island and the Cabbage Key Island Inn and Restaurant on Pineland both bounced back from Hurricane Ian after overcoming millions of dollars in damage.
“You make a little bit of progress every day,” said Robert Wells, whose family has owned Cabbage Key since 1976 and Tarpon Lodge since 2000. “And over the course of months, you look back and you say, ‘Wow, it’s hard to believe it looked that bad on the 28th of September.’”
The Cabbage Key properties include a restaurant, seven cottages and six rooms at the inn.
Tarpon Lodge has 20 rooms, plus two adjacent cottages. One of those cottages used to be on a dock that was destroyed during Hurricane Charley before it was moved by crane onto the adjacent land.
The two properties faced different types of damage from the storm. The Cabbage Key properties faced more wind damage, and the Tarpon Lodge more flooding, with 7 inches of water entering the restaurant that is approaching its centennial, having opened in 1926.
Although Tarpon Lodge reopened about six weeks after the storm, renovations on the buildings at the northern end of Pine Island only recently were completed. The property was fully booked for the weekend leading into Fourth of July festivities.
“As you look around, I think the best compliment to the recovery of the property is when people come in and say, ‘Did you have any damage from the storm?’” Wells said. “That was probably the biggest booster of confidence, hearing things like that. The grass is green again.”
Tarpon Lodge’s three docks have been rebuilt, and the bar inside the restaurant has been fully renovated, too.
“It was a lot of damage,” Wells said, “but we feel, at the same time, really fortunate that we were able to recover and get opened up as quickly as we were.”
Wells is also an appointed member of Lee County’s Tourist Development Council. In that role, he is advising on the county’s comeback after tourist taxes nose-dived by almost 50% in March compared to one year prior.
“Each area of the county has their own, unique issues,” Wells said. “Part of the area got more floods. Some of the area got more wind. And so, the county as a whole is dealing with a lot of different issues.”
About 30% of the county’s hotel rooms remain out of commission. Chipping away at that number and adding new properties, such as the Margaritaville Beach Resort Fort Myers Beach, which expected to open by the end of the year, would help the area continue to recover, Wells said.
“I think that next season is going to be a strong season for us,” he said. “Because I think a lot of people will be excited to be able to get back into their homes if they had a lot of their home damaged. They’re going to bring a lot of their friends and relatives down to come back and see this place. I hope that will fill a ton of rooms on our properties.”
