Historic Peninsula Inn in Gulfport has new owners
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jun 7, 2022

The Historic Peninsula Inn in Gulfport has been sold to a Miami-based hotelier.

The historic 12-room inn at 2937 Beach Blvd. S sold for $2.877 million to Florida House Realty Investments, which is linked to the owners of Casa Florida in Miami, according to a deed filed in Pinellas County. The sale price breaks down to approximately $239,750 a key.

The seller, Veronica Champion, has owned the inn for just over six years and said the hotel has seen an increase in demand since the start of the pandemic.

Casa Florida did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. The group plans to transform the property into a “pink hotel and cocktail bar,” the Gulfport Gabber reports.

“There has always been some appeal, but I can honestly say post-Covid, we’ve gotten a tremendous increase in interest,” Champion said. “Is it an interest because we’re an older historic building or an interest because we’re a smaller building where people feel more in control of their environment if you only have 12 rooms and there aren’t too many strangers around? It’s hard for me to tell what the full reason for choosing us is, but people are definitely choosing smaller hotels instead of the big ones.”

The inn was built in 1905 and opened as the Bayview Hotel. It operated as a hospital for injured veterans returning from World War II, a nursing home and a retirement home. It sat boarded up until 1999, when it was bought and renovated. In 2002, the Peninsula Inn and Spa opened, and it was sold to Champion in 2016.

Champion did a variety of renovations and restorations, including replacing the air conditioning, getting a new roof, renovating the kitchen and adding an extension.

According to Champion, preserving historic venues is a passion she and the new owners share. The hotel is in the center of Gulfport’s merchant district and is within walking distance of many shops and restaurants.

“The inn is a beautiful building, and it has a ton of personality. People just really like coming in and looking around and seeing it,” Champion said. “While new buildings can be really attractive, it’s not the same. Being able to come into a building that’s nearly 120 years old that really still has the feel of the era, people really enjoy it.”