Lighthouse Beach Park reopening photo by Adventures in Paradise
Lighthouse Beach Park photo by ABC-7
Work in progress at Ocean’s Reach!
New materials are coming in every day
A view that never gets old!
“Not perfect, but still paradise,” as our local Chamber of Commerce likes to say. An ideal way of recapping where we are nine months after Hurricane Ian hit with ferocious intensity and the enormous amount of work since to rebuild our much-loved destination.
Our on-island public beaches have now fully reopened, with the celebration two weeks ago of the much anxiously-awaited access to Lighthouse Beach Park. Visitors can now have a close-up view of our iconic 1884 lighthouse that lost one of its legs withstanding the storm. It’s become the symbol of our island’s resiliency, strength, hope and recovery.
There is still work to be done, as a new permanent leg for the lighthouse has to be fabricated and the park’s popular fishing pier has yet to reopen (no timeline yet as to when those will be completed).
Pictured above is the ribbon-cutting ceremony, which drew official representatives, residents, workers and visitors from up to five hours away. (Note that the biodegradable confetti was picked up by our terrific city staff members immediately afterwards.)
“This is yet another milestone we celebrate,” said Richard Johnson, mayor of Sanibel. “The islands are back in business! We welcome guests back to visit our island retailers and eateries while enjoying the shelling, sun, sand, and surf of our award-winning beaches.”
At last count, 24 restaurants have re-opened on Sanibel and Captiva Islands, allowing guests to come visit and support our rebounding business community.
At Ocean’s Reach, we are continuing to work diligently at rebuilding our treasured complex. Our biggest news is that we should — at long last — have electricity again by next week! We are also awaiting some final important votes from our OR owner base. Combined, we hope that we’ll soon be able to proceed to the core of our rebuilding plans and have a better idea of when in 2024 we will be able to officially re-open.
Until next time, Andy is also sending on photos from the latest work in progress … along with the “view that never gets old” from Unit 4D3!
Thank you so much for the updates. We can’t wait to visit you again! Sanibel means a lot to us and can’t wait to come back. Many happy thoughts and prayers go out to everyone on the island
So very happy to see the progress. My wife and I can’t wait to get back to Sanibel and Oceans Reach.
We were very happy to receive the update. Sanibel and Oceans Reach are very special to our family. We are looking forward to visiting as soon as possible.
Another milestone ….until we’re back to Sanibel and Ocean’s Reach! I will always love the view from every part of the resort!!
We can’t wait to come back! Had two trips to OR cancelled by Ian. We came last month & stayed at The Island Inn since OR not open. It was very nice. We went up to Gulfside Park so we could walk over & see OR. Happy to see the work going on! Sanibel was still wonderful despite so much loss and so much still closed. But beaches & water were great! We saw so much more wildlife in water closer to the shore, probably due to there being far less people in the water. I encourage all the Ocean’s Reach lovers to visit Sanibel to support while OR is being repaired. Plenty of wonderful food available & the Tower Art Gallery is open. Of course OR has our hearts & will always be our place of choice when it reopens. We’ll be staying at Jensen’s On The Gulf this fall. It felt good to support what is open.
Cathy from Tennessee
Such exciting news! We can’t wait to make reservations to once again stay at Ocean’s Reach, our favorite vacation spot! Thanks for the great photo, Andy!
We really miss our time at OR. Good to see recovery work in progress. We appreciate the updates. Hope all personnel are ok.
We stayed at Tween Waters last week.
It was nice but not my home away from home OR! We took a stroll past the building beach side and went down the drive to take some pictures for the family. Everyone is so anxious to be back…. We love that place. ❤️ Visited almost all the restaurants that were open and it was wonderful. Still a magical place. Thank you for the updates- waiting anxiously to make our next reservation.