Pilot House Purchase Fuels Marquesa Expansion Plans

One of the most elegant guest houses in Old Town is about to get bigger.

The owners of the Marquesa Hotel, which boasts 27 rooms and suites, two swimming pools, and a top-notch restaurant, are about to add 14 new units, a swimming pool, and additional parking at an annex location down the street from the main complex.

“We’ve completed the purchase of the William Kerr house, at 410 Simonton St., and also of the Pilot House next door, which we will continue to operate, until it is fully integrated into our hotel,” said Erik DeBoer, who owns the Marquesa along with Robert Manley and Carol Wightman. “We’re going to demolish a concrete building at the rear of the Pilot House property and replace it with a wood-frame structure. We’re also going to move the pool. We’ll be breaking ground in January, and I expect the work will take about a year.”

DeBoer said this week that the expansion plans have now been approved by the City of Key West Planning Board at a meeting he called “one of the shortest and sweetest” he’s attended during his time as a Key West hotel entrepreneur.

The William Kerr house was built around 1870, and is named for the man who built it and a number of prominent area buildings, such as St. Mary’s Convent, the Old Stone Church, and the Key West Custom House. Kerr was the sole professional architect in town at the time. The house was featured in a national television advertising campaign by the Tourist Development Council in 2003.

DeBoer stressed that the unique architectural details of the Kerr house, such as the front room’s ornate painted ceiling and oval “lunette” paintings of ships, will be preserved.

Each new unit will include a private balcony, and parking spot, and will be decorated in the same manner as the existing rooms of the Marquesa.

The six current employees of the Pilot House have been kept on the payroll, DeBoer added.