Dive Brief:

• Allegiant Travel Co., owner of Allegiant Air, broke ground Wednesday on its first Sunseeker Resorts-branded high-rise condominium project on Charlotte Harbor in Charlotte County, Florida. Total investment in the waterfront development, which will be complete in 18-24 months, is about $1 billion.
• The first phase of construction — which will deliver approximately 500 hotel rooms, more than 180 extended-stay suites, conference space, restaurants, bars, retail and a harbor walk — will cost $420 million, according to the The Charlotte Sun, but other reports have the price tag as high as $470 million. 
• Boston-based Suffolk, local firm Florida Premier Contractors, Las Vegas-based architect Steelman Partners, Orlando-based architect L2 Studios and others make up the project's construction and design team. The project is expected to create hundreds of jobs. 

Dive Insight:

A few days before breaking ground, Allegiant announced that it had partnered up with TPG Sixth Street Partners to finance the project with a $175 million loan, the "first piece of a long-term, potential $1 billion partnership" as development continues.

In November, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a permit for the projects’s 934-foot-long seawall, according to the The Charlotte Sun. As part of this work, Sunseeker will be able to cut down a grouping of mangroves, which are protected by Florida environmental regulations. The developer is permitted to do so because the stormwater management system that will be installed will offer more protection to the coastline than the mangroves can. 

Since devastating hurricanes passing through several Gulf Coast and Atlantic states caused billions of dollars of property damage during the last few years, discussions around coastal protection and resiliency are on the rise.  

Some concerns are being addressed through design features and building practices, like those being incorporated into the planned $1 billion Massachusetts General Hospital expansion in Boston. The new structure will include flood protection and other features that will allow patients and staff to take refuge there for up to four days following a natural or other disaster. 

Protecting entire coastlines is also on the agenda with massive projects like the Texas General Land Office and Army Corps of Engineers’ estimated $23 billion to $32 billion coastal barrier plan outside the Houston Ship Channel. The project would include construction of floodwalls and floodgates, seawall rehabilitation, new drainage and pump station systems, surge barrier gates and a comprehensive gate complex, in order to prevent the level of destruction Hurricane Harvey's floods brought in 2017.