The Marco Beach Hotel

The Marco Beach Hotel in the mid-1960s was a humble resort situated right in the middle of Marco Island’s 3.5-mile crescent beach. But it was just a placeholder for what was coming—the state-of-the-art Marco Beach Hotel, a 10-story hotel with a price tag of $18 million. 

The original had 50 rooms and was quickly expanded to 100 rooms and 44 villas. When the new Marco Beach Hotel opened on December 18, 1971, the Deltona Corporation, developers of modern Marco Island, believed they had the finest hotel on the west coast of Florida. 

The Marco Beach Hotel was Frank Mackle, Jr.’s crowning achievement. He spared no expense on opening night, arranged on his wife’s birthday. Even Governor Ruben Askew was in attendance. 

Mackle made sure he picked the right person to steer the ship, 30-year-old Wharton-educated Roger Everingham, who had managed a competing resort on Key Biscayne.

"I was part of the opening group,” said Everingham, the Marco Beach Hotel’s first and only manager from 1970-1979. He was actually named the hotel’s manager before work had even begun on the new hotel. “I received an indication of interest from Deltona Corporation to be involved in the opening of their new hotel being built at Marco Island, which became known as the Marco Beach Hotel and Villas. To be there with the governor and all those dignitaries was quite a thrill for a young guy."

Frank Mackle, Jr., was the president of the Deltona Corporation. Brothers Robert and Elliott and executive vice president Neil Bahr - often referred to as the fourth Mackle Brother - were the balance of the leadership team. Everington reported to Bahr.

"Neil was my direct line to management,” Everingham said, "and Neil was just a great guy. He was maybe in his early 40s. Quite a good-looking man but a very personable guy. He had served in the US Navy in the Second War. Neil was a was a delight to work for. He was a very good boss and was always patient. At times, when he had to be, he was firm. I respected him greatly.”

"Frequently, when I went to meet with Neil, we would go into the Mackles’ office on Coral Way in Coral Gables,” Everingham said. "The Mackle brothers, Frank, Elliott and Robert, occupied one very large office together. They operated out of one office where the three brothers could be in total knowledge of whatever was going on in the company. Not that they micromanaged, but they were on top of everything at that time. They were the largest developer in the state of Florida. They were great guys to work with. They were very tolerant of a young guy like myself who still had quite a bit to learn."

The Marco Beach Hotel was an immediate success, even though the infrastructure of Marco Island was still in its skeletal phase. Everingham was not afraid to take a risk.

“All my hotel friends in Miami said you're crazy going over there,” Everingham said. "There's nothing there. It'll be a massive failure.' Well, we proved them wrong.”

The first year after the hotel opened, Marco's condo revenue nearly tripled - from $4,500,000 in 1971 to $12,400,000 in 1972.

"I think from almost the very beginning, we experienced pretty good occupancies,” Everingham said. “And it kind of came as a surprise the first summer. We never had anticipated people in Miami and Fort Lauderdale were very amenable to driving across Alligator Alley or Tamiami Trail to Marco Island, to the beautiful beaches and a brand new hotel. So, it worked out very well.”

Mackle was quite invested in the success of the Marco Beach Hotel. He even added an airport to the island, located approximately where Landmark Street is today. It was later moved across the bridge to the Marco Shores area.

“It was a great spirit on the island at that time,” Everingham recalls. "We were doing quite well, and I think we sort of impressed the Mackles. After maybe one or two years, it became clear that there was a market for air transport from Miami. Miami International was the dominant airport at that time in the whole South Florida area. The Mackles decided that we should have an airline. So, we started Marco Island Airways with a couple of old Martin 404s. We refurbished them and hired some pretty girls in great-looking outfits. Nothing risqué, but very attractive for the attractive young ladies. They would serve champagne on the way over from Miami. And we got to the point where we added some planes eventually. On one day, Marco Island Airways transported a thousand people.”

Everingham worked with a local legend, Herb Savage, who lived on the island until he passed just weeks from his 100th birthday.

"Herb was a great guy and a very talented architect,” Everingham said. "He worked for Jimmy Vensel, but it was Herb’s creative design on the Marco Beach Hotel project. He was the architect in charge, and he would be there frequently. We became good friends. He designed a lot of the original Mackle houses on Marco Island.”

“Of course, the main level was the second level,” said Herb Savage in a 2016 interview when he was 97. “When I designed that initially, I had the lobby level at grade level, ground level. And Frank Mackle says, ‘Well, I'd rather have that elevated to the point that when a family comes into the hotel they drive up to the entrance level on the second floor, and that's the lobby of the hotel. And mama and the children can go over there and stand at the bridge, the stairway area, and look down at the pool and the garden and the beach while daddy's back there having to pay for it all.' So that was one reason why the lobby was on the second level.”

Still today as the JW Marriott, the lobby has three stories of glass facing Marco Beach.

Everingham had the rare opportunity to see a major hotel constructed in front of him. One of his proudest creations, Quinn’s, is still a legendary dining spot on the beach at the JW Marriott.

"I had a vision for Quinn’s,” Everingham said, “which was built at beach level. The vision was to try to replicate a famous bar in Tahiti that was named Quinn's. It was very colorful. I wanted to name the structure, which was already being built in a Polynesian architecture on the beach. I wanted to name it Quinn’s and use that as a theme for the restaurant. Frank Mackle came over one day, and by that time, the hotel's main structure had been built, but it wasn't open yet. I took Mr. Mackle up to the penthouse to look at the construction going on. And as we stood there looking at the construction, Frank Mackle said, 'Roger, what is this stuff about you wanting to build something called Quinn’s?’ I explained my concept to him, and he listened. I went on to say, 'Mr. Mackle, if you agree to do Quinn's, I will give up one year's salary.’ He laughed and he said, ‘Well, that that won't be necessary. We'll go ahead and do it your way.’” 

After Quinn’s became a smash hit, Everingham went back to Mackle.

“About a year later,” Everingham said, “the hotel was open and Frank Mackle and I were up there on the ninth floor again looking down at Quinn’s. I said, "Mr. Mackle, you remember when we stood up here a while back and I said I would give up my first year of salary if we built Quinn’s?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I remember.' I said, 'I'm wondering now if I couldn't have a bonus for that?' Frank Mackle laughed. That was the end of that conversation. The bonus never materialized and Quinn's went on to be a phenomenal success. It was a character bar. It had wood floors and a Polynesian decor. It was a great success in the beginning and a lot of fun. We had an entertainer, Denny Zavatt, who played guitar and would sit on a high stool and sing. He had a great repertoire, but one of his favorite things to do was to sing the menu."

Everingham had great respect for Mackle.

"Frank was just a very nice man,” Everingham said. “He had a great interest in Marco Island. He was a quality-oriented guy. He very much wanted the Marco Beach Hotel to be a success. And he was very supportive. And when it did become a success, shortly after opening, he was very pleased.”

Everingham said Mackle was so impressed with the Marco Beach Hotel that he was ready to build another hotel immediately.

“He wanted to build another hotel right next to the Marco Beach Hotel,” Everingham said, "but he wanted to do it on an upscale basis. When I was visiting Miami one day, he said, ‘Roger, I want you to take your wife Barbara and go to France. Tour some of the fine, smaller hotels in the south of France.' Of course, that that was a great treat for me. Barbara and I went to France and stayed in a number of smaller hotels that were really, really fine. Some of those hotels gave us ideas of how to do stuff at the Marco Beach Hotel. That was the kind of thinking that Frank Mackle had. He was in preparation to build a new hotel next to the Marco Beach Hotel, which was going to be upscale and expensive and kind of European-oriented. As it turned out, that hotel never got built.”

Deltona Corporation’s fortunes flagged when they were denied permits to continue their fill and dredge development of the island. As part of the fallout, after nine years the Marco Beach Hotel was for sale.

"Deltona ran into the obstacle,” Everingham said, “they were sitting on this massive enterprise at Marco Island. Lots that they had already sold for delivery later weren't yet built. That put Deltona into a very fragile financial position. Deltona was a leveraged corporation. They were facing the prospect of having to go into default on some of their financing. The only solution was to sell the Marco Beach Hotel and Villas. That’s how Marriott got involved. In my opinion, the hotel, which I think was at that time sold for $27 million, really should have been valued up in the $60 million. But Deltona was in a pinch."

Everingham is impressed with how Marriott has carried on with the hotel.

“We kind of all objected to that situation,” Everingham said. “But Marriott has been a good patron for the hotel and I think for Marco Island, too. With all of the new facilities, which are massive, I think they've got 800 rooms."

Everingham could have stayed on with Marriott back in 1979.

"Marriott offered me to stay on,” Everingham said, “and I decided not to. I became the GM at the Naples Beach Club for about a year or so until I moved on to other things. Looking back, maybe I should have stayed with Marriott. One of the things that discouraged me was that I was told that if I stayed with Marriott, that I would have to go to Washington and participate in a management training program. And I couldn't buy that. So, I maybe made a bad decision. But I left Deltona and the hotel and went on to other things."

Herb Savage considered the Marco Beach Hotel as one of his top two accomplishments, along with designing Frank Mackle’s personal home on the island.

“The Marco Beach Hotel was my greatest accomplishment," Savage said. “…that hotel was the greatest. That was a great tribute.”