Redevelopment coming to Blue Waters Resort
BY TERRY SCHMIDA
Another old-skool, mom-and-pop style Marathon-area stopover is about to meet the wrecking ball.
The Marathon City Council agreed, at its May 12 meeting, to allow developers to demolish the Blue Waters Resort Motel, located at Mile Marker 48 bayside, and construct a vastly expanded facility associated with the adjacent Courtyard Marathon Florida Keys, now under construction.
The only fly in the ointment for would-be Blue Waters developers Jorge Cepero and Larry Abbo, is that their request to build “employment” housing was turned down. Instead, the pair must construct two “workforce” units, which will be deed-restricted, and not necessarily available to their own workers.
The developers requested the housing waiver in order to build “more rooms in one area”, rather than a cluster of off-site units. Cepero and Abbo anticipate needing to build living facilities for “more than two people.” The workforce housing site has yet to be determined.
As far as actual plans for the new resort, the developers plan to keep the existing marina and pool. However, the Blue Waters’s commercial floor area will mushroom from about 300 square feet to some 3,000.
The new, as yet unnamed project will offer 21 suites, and share workers with the aforementioned 95-room Marriott, owned by Roger Masters and partner Prime Hospitality Group.
The two properties also plan to share utilities easements and sewer connections, though the Marathon council members debated over whether or not to force Cepero and Abbo to install its own sewer line.
Details, such as the sewer issue, will be discussed once more, at the May 26 City Council meeting.
Should final approval be granted, the project should be created in 12 months.
Comments about the now defunct Blue Waters on Tripadvisor.com lauded it as “blast from the past” 1950s-era lodging, with “charming old Florida style,” and staff restaurant recommendations “that were right on.” Other reviews, however, claimed that “nearly everything was in need of repair,” and that it “could use some renovating.”
Tractor crushes Marathon man
In other Marathon news, construction worker Pedro Jose Sanchez, 47, was crushed to death on the morning of May 12, behind Third Generation Plumbing, by a large CAT tractor.
Detectives with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said the tractor seemed to have rolled over Sanchez, crushing his head. An investigation into Sanchez’ death is ongoing.
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