St. Johns County issued a $10.5 million building permit Monday, Aug. 24, for a four-story Compass Hotel by Margaritaville at the Beachwalk master-planned community.
The permit clears the way for vertical construction on the 65,117-square-foot hotel at 330 Beachwalk Shore Drive, the Jax Daily Record reported. County filing documents list the project under the placeholder title "Key Hotel @ Beachwalk." Previous design proposals submitted by the developers identified the site as a Compass Hotel by Margaritaville.
The master plan pairs the 111-room hotel with 68 multi-bedroom, short-term-stay cottages ringing the southwest edge of Beachwalk's 14-acre Crystal Lagoon. The hotel and cottages would occupy about four acres adjacent to the lagoon, according to the St. Johns Citizen.
Development partners PEBB Enterprises and Falcone Group secured modified zoning rules from the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners in late 2024, allowing increased room capacity at the resort grounds. JEA issued a service availability letter Monday, March 2, for the proposed hotel, signaling the project had been advancing through infrastructure planning before the building permit came through.
County building records list Michael William Fritz of Kissimmee-based Building Solutions Specialists Inc. as the general contractor for the initial structural phases.
Alfonso Costa Jr., chief operating officer of Falcone Group, called the project "one of the most exciting ventures we are undertaking" in an October 2025 interview with the Jacksonville Business Journal, when permit applications were first filed.
The cottages would be managed by Margaritaville Hotel and would not be listed on Airbnb or VRBO, representatives said at a county commissioners meeting in late 2024. Some Beachwalk residents raised concerns at that meeting about short-term-stay guests straining community amenities, including the lagoon. Developers argued the cottage plan was preferable to the alternative of another big-box store.
Beachwalk, developed by South Florida-based Falcone Group, includes more than 4,000 homes, 800 rental apartments and about 1 million square feet of commercial retail space, according to a September 2025 Florida Times-Union report. The hotel complex is planned as the primary commercial anchor for a walkable waterfront entertainment district that includes the neighboring Beachwalk Shops and adjacent restaurant spaces.
No groundbreaking date has been set.
