HAMPTON, Va. — A longtime beach club on Fort Monroe could make a comeback this summer!
After a decade on the beach in Fort Monroe, Paradise Ocean Club had to close last summer.
Owner Baxter Simmons said the National Park Service pulled their lease unexpectedly.
“We had a ton of support when the bid was taken away from us originally,” Simmons said.
Simmons sent a new lease proposal and said he recently won that bid.
“We haven’t been given the right to reopen the business yet, but we at least have the right to go back and be the first ones to negotiate a new lease for the space,” Simmons said.
Now, he's waiting to get a draft of the lease and see what’s required this time. He said the process will likely take a few weeks.
“When we were negotiating the lease last time, it took us about six weeks to get everything ironed out because it has to go through legal (review) on both sides, make sure everything is covered,” Simmons said. “It really depends how many new points are in this lease.”
In September 2022, The National Park Service announced they would request new proposals, just a few months after placing a temporary weekend curfew for the North Beach area in June because of safety concerns.
Word of the potential comeback has people buzzing on Facebook, with many commenters hoping it does. Some suggested adding age limit requirements to enter. Amaria Thomas used to work there.
“It’s a fun place,” Thomas said. “It’s beautiful to go, the scenery is beautiful.”
Simmons said the request for proposals mentioned the lessee needing a security and parking plan. He said that’s no problem.
“We’ve already written those last summer,” Simmons said. “So hopefully those will be smooth as far as what we can agree to on.”
He isn’t sure what might happen this summer but hopes to start negotiations soon.
“We would like to get in there and we would like to get in with a majority of the summer because then there is a lot of downtime of paying rent,” Simmons said. “So if you don’t make it at a reasonable point in the summer it’s really not worth it for us to be open at all. So, we really need to go ahead and push forward as fast as we can”
A National Park Service spokesman said they can’t talk about ongoing lease discussions but said they will let the public know when there is a signed lease.