Postcard Inn on St. Pete Beach to get $6 million refresh
By Eric Snider
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jun 18, 2015

The new owners of the Postcard Inn on St. Pete Beach have committed $6 million to upgrading the popular waterside property. The 196 guest rooms, lobby, restaurant and other components will get a makeover, said Thaddeus Paul of the Carlyle Group, which acquired the property for $32.5 million in February.

"The outside will look the same, but the inside will sure look different,” he said.

Paul expects the project to begin in the next couple of months and be completed by the end of 2015.

After transitioning from a Travelodge in 2009, PCI, as it is commonly called, built a unique customer base of young locals drawn to its bohemian charms. Part of the hotel's appeal was a certain ramshackle quality, best evidenced in its fatigued, haphazard guest rooms.

Refreshing those spaces should draw significantly more out-of-town visitors. PCI became something of a party central, with inebriated revelers and debris strewn on the beach causing tension with neighbors. In December 2014, The PCI Bar & Grill was closed for a few hours due to numerous health code violations.

Paul said he was aware of the problems, and that his property manager, Ocean Properties, was working to mitigate them. The Carlyle Group has borrowed $26.1 million from BankUnited to finance the purchase and fund the renovation. HFF, working on behalf of the borrower, secured the five-year, floating-rate loan. In a statement, HFF said Carlyle Group plans to "reposition [PCI] as a premier beachfront destination.”

The 8.5-acre property at 6300 Gulf Blvd. (see map below) has 300 feet of Gulf frontage. The tract also includes a 1.2-acre retail strip center, which will be converted into additional meeting space, the HFF statement said.