The Punta Gorda Waterfront Hotel is now demolished

The Punta Gorda Waterfront Hotel has been sitting vacant for nearly two years but Wednesday, that changed. The structural demolition started and the hotel and restaurant were fully demolished.

In the morning, the building stood, but by 5pm, it was all gone. Now lays piles of rubble with walls, pipes, even chairs and bed mattresses.

Dozens came to watch the demolition themselves and called it a bittersweet moment. They said they would cherish their memories at the hotel and restaurant.

“I have mixed emotions. I hate to see old things go down, but with the condition this was in after the hurricane, there was really no choice. My biggest concern is, you know what comes next here?,” Eddie Hoagland, a Punta Gorda resident said.

Hurricane Ian’s damage caused the hotel to close permanently.

Multiple bulldozers were needed to complete the job. They dug, pushed, ripped, moved the remains of the abandoned building, leaving clouds of smoke. You could even feel the ground shake at times.

“They’re 100,000-pound machines that are equipped with specialty demolition attachments so they can control what they’re demolishing as it’s coming down,” Landon Thompson, the Vice President of Pece of Mind Demolition, said.

Built in 1968, with a two-story attachment added in 1989, the community of Punta Gorda has had some good memories.

“This is kind of a landmark. It’s the first thing you see when you come across the bridge,” Hoagland said. He said, “The hotel has been a really nice, vibrant hotel for years, and then the hurricane came along, and sort of ended all that.”

Hoagland said, “I’ve never stayed at the hotel, but I’ve known people who have, and there were no complaints. It was just a normal fixture in a small town that we really liked.”

No more building doesn’t mean no more work. For the next 45 days, crews will be cleaning up and loading truck after truck with the remains of the building.

“There will be development we’re excited to be a part of that clearing the way to make that happen and be a very beneficial space as a here on Peace River, it’s an absolutely beautiful piece of property for the community to utilize moving forward,” Thompson said.

It is unclear what development will fill the empty property.