Jekyll's decision time:

Board to decide on developer

September 23, 2007
By DAN CHAPMAN | The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Who is the "average" Georgian? Can he or she afford a $250-a-night hotel room?

The answers lie at the heart of the latest battle over the future of Jekyll Island, the state park coveted by developers. The next skirmish comes Monday, when the island's governing board taps a master planner to build hundreds of new condos and hotel rooms.
Three companies, Trammell Crow Co., Linger Longer Communities and Jekyll Island Revitalization Group vie to redevelop the park's 45-acre "town center," a first step toward billions of dollars' worth of new residential and commercial construction.

The "keep-Jekyll-affordable" crowd fears the winner will layer the barrier island's developable areas with pricey hotels and condos beyond the financial reach of middle-class Georgians. Developers and the pro-growth Jekyll Island Authority board insist affordable rooms will be available for visitors.

"We're going to provide accommodations across the economic strata," Bill Donohue, the authority's executive director, said last week. "In today's travel environment, you would have limited-service-type hotels and then you might also have full-service or suite hotels."

In 1947, Gov. Melvin Thompson labeled Jekyll "a state park for the plain people of Georgia." Three years later the General Assembly ruled that the island remain "available to people of average income."

Who's 'average' anyway?
Determining the "average" Georgian is an inexact science. But the U.S. Census Bureau pegs the state's median household income at $46,832. The average Georgia family contains 3.27 members, the bureau calculates.

That family would be hard-pressed to afford a week at a beachside hotel where rooms cost upward of $250 a night.

Trammell Crow already has the OK to build a $90 million hotel and condo project at the current Buccaneer Beach Resort, which is considered an affordable, if run-down, hotel. A Trammell Crow representative said summer rates at its new hotel could top $250.

The cost of a week's stay at the beach with taxes, but excluding meals, transportation and putt-putt golf, could reach $2,000.

"That's out of reach for me and most of our church folks," said the Rev. Greg Lowery, pastor of Pleasant Hill Baptist in the Middle Georgia town of Cadwell. "If that's the average accommodation price, we'll have to vacation elsewhere or go to the campground."

State law mandates that the authority run the park to ensure "the lowest rates reasonable and possible for the benefit of the people of the state of Georgia." State Sen. Jeff Chapman (R-Brunswick), whose district includes Jekyll, cites that section of the Georgia code as proof that $250-a-night rooms are too expensive.

"The authority has been given a charge to make their rates as affordable as possible," he said. "That doesn't bar more luxurious accommodations. But the majority of accommodations should reflect the written intention of state law."

Donohue and other board members said a sufficient number of affordable rooms will be available, but that visitors might have to consider Jekyll at non-peak times.

"Our goal is to be good stewards of the property and make sure we're financially sustainable," Donohue said. "But we don't want that to lead, inadvertently, to higher prices."

Doubling the rates
In July, an ocean-view room at the Buccaneer cost $149 a night. At the nearby Days Inn Hotel, a standard oceanside room cost $164.95 in peak season.

Last year, the "average daily rate" for the island's 10 hotels, excluding the pricey Jekyll Island Club Hotel, was $98.99, according to the authority. The Buccanneer's rate: $88.26.

Trammell Crow said the hotel it plans to build on the Buccaneer site would carry an average year-round rate of $170 a night.

"They're basically doubling room rates," said David Egan, an island resident and co-founder of the Initiative to Protect Jekyll Island. He noted that Trammell Crow is also considering replacing other oceanside hotels.

"Both the developer and the authority have a philosophy that oceanfront land is too valuable to build anything less than what we're seeing at the Buccaneer site," Egan added. "A doubling of room rates up and down the beach is not acceptable for a state park with an affordability mandate."

Egan's nonprofit has, unscientifically, surveyed nearly 2,000 Jekyll lovers who overwhelmingly opposed new, pricey hotels. Eighty-one percent of respondents also said they wouldn't pay more than $150 a night for a room.

Hotels are businesses
Donohue says a planned SpringHill Suites hotel south of the Buccaneer should satisfy more budget-minded travelers. Scheduled to open in 2009, the hotel to be developed by the Marriott Corp. and the Jekyll Island Club Hotel will likely charge an average daily rate of $135 to $150, according to Kevin Runner, who manages the Jekyll Island Club. Peak prices for an oceanside suite on a July 4 weekend, though, could top $225.

"It would be a big mistake not to provide multiple prices," said Jeffrey Humphreys, director of economic forecasting at the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business. "But obviously your mix of products should be tilted toward more affordability at this point. So you have to decide what can the 'average' person afford."

Although loath to return Jekyll to the legislative arena, Chapman said the General Assembly may consider the state park's affordability in January. Mark Newton, director of the Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management Program at Gwinnett Technical College, said that would be a mistake.

"If I was a developer I wouldn't want a non-hotel person to tell me what I should be charging my guests," he said. "If I charge too much, nobody will come. If I charge too little, the hotel will be filled, but it won't make enough revenue. You've got to remember this is a business."

But it's also a state park for Georgians "of average income."

"I get the impression the voice of the people doesn't matter to the Jekyll Island Authority board [who] treat Jekyll as private property," said Rev. Lowery who first visited the park in 1966. "You'd think they'd act differently, particularly in this case where the state has mandated by law that it remain affordable."