Blue Flag's Plans For Beachside Include New Restaurant, More Rooms

Blue Flag Partners has filed plans for the renovation of The Beachside hotel on North Beach Street, which the Boston-based real estate firm acquired in 2021 for $38 million.

Blue Flag Partners confirmed to the Current on Tuesday that the plans include a new 70-seat restaurant for guests only, seven new rooms, and an expansion of the meeting space, as well as a new kids pool.

The Planning Board will get its first look at the plans during its meeting on Monday. If approved, the construction would not begin until the fall of 2023.

The 3.5-acre property on North Beach Street had been owned by Offshore Beachside LLC, a company led by Karen Keelan, for 30 years up until it was purchased by Blue Flag Partners just over a year ago . The 94-room hotel was originally built in 1966, and includes an outdoor pool area.

The restaurant would be intended for guests and their invitees only, according to the permit application, and would have a maximum of 38 interior seats and 32 exterior seats.

According to Blue Flag Partners, the existing meeting space at The Beachside, which is already approved for 45 seats, would be expanded to 50 as part of the renovation plan. The existing pool would be rebuilt and enlarged to include a new children's pool area.

The upgrades and renovations were filed as part of Blue Flag's major commercial development special permit application to the Planning Board. Other aspects of the project noted in the permit include:

• The existing meeting space would be relocated from the main building to the garage structure
• The gym, which is for guests only, would also be relocated to the garage. Blue Flag does not propose any memberships for the new gym facility.
• A new game room
• Two existing kitchens on the premises would be replaced by a single commercial kitchen
• Conversion of existing staff housing to guest rooms, bringing the total number of rooms to 101.

Blue Flag Partners, co-founded by Terry Sanford and Brad Guidi, has spent the last three years assembling a sprawling real estate portfolio on Nantucket that now features residential, lodging, and restaurant properties. They include the Faraway Nantucket hotel (the former Roberts House Collection), the historic Woodbox Inn, The Pearl and Boarding House restaurants, the former Century House Inn, the residential developments Cannonbury Lane and Hawthorne Park, along with the former Star of the Sea Hostel in Surfside.

“We are honored to be the next stewards of The Beachside,” Blue Flag managing partner Jason Brown said in a statement when the hotel was acquired by real estate firm in 2021.. “Karen Keelan has done a tremendous job over her many years at the helm of the property, and we look forward to investing into its future. Our goal is simple, to continue the hotel’s long tradition of offering exceptional hospitality in a prime location between town and some of the best beaches and restaurants on Nantucket.”

The Beachside is currently booking rooms for the summer of 2023 from $412 to $669 per night in July.

Blue Flag now has more than $500 million in assets under management, with properties on Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod, and in Boston in addition to its Nantucket portfolio.

During Blue Flag's most recent regulatory review on Nantucket, its plans for The Woodbox property on Fair Street were approved, but only after strenuous objections by neighbors led to a scaled back plan and a controversial compromise to make its restaurant private, available to guests only.