This article originally appeared on Business Insider.
A party venue with a difference in Tampa Bay, Florida, is for sale for $14.2 million.
Pine Key is an island in the middle of Tampa Bay, created by a state dredging project. It spans approximately 69 acres, though only nine of these are above water, and boasts photogenic white beaches and surrounding blue waters.
It’s commonly known as “Beer Can Island” for the beer cans left behind by boaters, but over the past seven years it has been transformed into one of Florida’s party hot spots.
It was purchased by four entrepreneur friends in 2017 for $63,650.
Russell Loomis, 46, a member of the visionary quartet, said in an interview with the Times of London: “We have worked hard for the last six years on this project and we are ready to pass the baton.” to the next person.”
According to his LinkedIn profile, Loomis has a business background in tech apps and runs a debt relief company. In 2017 he and friends built a floating tiki bar using 258 plastic barrels. Finding a parking spot for their floating watering hole brought them to Pine Key.
“It was an extremely fun time, but it came with a lot of challenges. When we bought it we didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into.”
When they bought the island, which already had a reputation as an unofficial party spot for locals, it lacked any facilities or services, and its owners seemed quite happy to be rid of it.
But in the years since, after hauling in food and alcohol supplies, putting in restrooms, picnic tables and a 120-foot inflatable slide, the once-defunct island has become a hotspot for boaters looking to unwind.
“Running an island is different than running a normal business. There’s a whole new learning curve,” Loomis said.
“If you run a bar on the mainland, a truck comes with all the inventory, and they go in and stock the shelves; with the island, you physically go to the grocery store, load it into vans, from the vans onto a boat, off the boat wherever it is headed on the island.
“The logistics are the hardest,” Loomis said.
However, Loomis, Cole Weaver, James Wester and John Gadd, having invested 5 million dollars in the project, turned the island into a hot spot for revelers. They even hosted weddings and music events, selling up to 3,000 concert tickets at a time.
Others weren’t so thrilled with the friends’ business plan
While many appreciated the friends’ decision to exploit the island, others were less sure.
“A small group of people thought it was their island and didn’t understand that before we bought it, it was actually privately owned, and they were trespassers – the owner just didn’t enforce it, so they felt entitled. ‘We opened up and created facilities and entertainment,’ Loomis said.
In an effort to appease some locals, Weaver spent 100 days living on the island, building relationships with the boating community and reassuring them that they could still come to the island whenever they wanted.
Weaver, a real estate agent and architectural engineer, decided to keep most of the island open to anyone who wanted to land, but reserved part of it for “paying members.”
Local authorities also raised a fuss, saying the island should be used as a nature reserve rather than for parties. Manatees reside near the island, seeking solace in the warm waters during the winter. Weaver, however, believes the only wildlife living on the island are seagulls and a mouse that bothered him during his stay, according to The Times.
New owner
The island will be auctioned as a cryptocurrency NFT, although cash bids will also be accepted, Fox reports. The auction began in early March and will end on April 1, 2024.
The highest bidder will be the new owner of the island. However, the unique property presents specific problems. Last year, it was submerged under five feet of water during Hurricane Idalia, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
“We have received so much interest and many, many calls, from developers who want to build homes to people who want to continue doing what we are doing,” Weaver told the Times.
“It was a fun time… it was a great time. It’s not every day you wake up on your own island,” he said.