ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — St. Johns County officials will be meeting this month to discuss whether to allow the demolition of a motel in St. Augustine.
The Magic Beach Motel was built in 1951, originally called the Blue Ocean Motel.
In December of 2021, the Cultural Resources Review Board in St. Johns County officially designated the location as a “Significant Cultural Resource.” The building was given the designation partly due to its architecture. It was built by an Italian immigrant, Cesidio Tuccella, in the Late Moderne style.
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The owners submitted an application in January to have it demolished. Now, the Cultural Resources Review Board will hold a meeting to discuss the idea and possible alternatives.
It will be addressed at the meeting on Monday, April 14th at 1:30 P.M.
“In light of the significant cultural resource status of the Motel, staff requested an additional historic survey and mitigation alternatives to address the effect to the historic resource,” states meeting documents.
An excerpt from the Cultural Resource Management Plan (CRMP), which will be discussed, provides the following justification for demolition:
“The factors driving demolition and not preservation or rehabilitation of the structure includes rising insurance and financing costs, increasing preferences for larger units with more amenities based on industry-wide standards and functionally obsolete designs and mechanical systems. Additionally, the plan states that the site of the existing buildings is generally low in elevation (Staff: roadway estimated at ~7-8 feet above sea level and structures ~10-feet above sea level) and prone to flooding in extreme conditions such as hurricanes.”
It also provided the following statement on how the hotel could contribute to a potential historic district, if not demolished:
“The building is separated from the main concentration of older buildings at the west end of Vilano Road and is surrounded by seven non-historic buildings. In fact, the historic character of Vilano Road has been substantially diminished since first recorded in the Florida Master Site File in 2001 with the demolition of several buildings, the Lazy Sands Bar and Newt’s Vilano Motel being examples, and new construction which is of a different scale and mass than the small-scale commercial buildings traditionally located there.”
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Two alternatives to complete demolition are provided, including relocating or raising the existing structure. The applicant, however, doesn’t think it is feasible. The other is to demolish the building, while salvaging and repurposing certain elements to be used in whatever building replaces it, including its iconic flamingo plasterwork and the Magic Beach neon sign.
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