Speedy roof replacement helps resort recover from hurricane’s fury
The community of Panama City Beach, Fla., didn’t see the same level of destruction as nearby Mexico Beach when Hurricane Michael made landfall on Oct. 10, 2018, but this didn’t stop the storm from doing significant damage to the Sheraton Bay Point Resort, a luxury property perched at the entrance to the community’s Grand Canal. In fact, it took $30 million and 10 months of hard work to bring the area’s biggest resort back online – a job that included replacing the metal roofs on multiple buildings on a tight schedule, when materials were in short supply.
The storm’s 160-mph winds tore the roofs off all three of the resort’s main buildings, leaving interiors open to the storm’s driving rain. This was especially distressing because the entire complex had completed another $30 million renovation just a year before. Managers were almost starting from scratch as they scrambled to get the 360-room facility back in operation as quickly as they possibly could.
The roof replacement alone was a monumental task. Installers with Garland, Texas-based Elite 1 Roofing specified 150,000 sq. ft. of Snap-Clad roofing panels from Petersen for the project. The .032-gauge aluminum panels were fabricated in the company’s Granite finish, to match the previous roofing. In addition to the finish choice, Petersen also had the mix of factory and field-rolled panel material Elite 1 Roofing’s pros needed to meet an aggressive schedule. The reroofing project started in March 2019 and was fully wrapped up by September, just six months later.
The grand reopening for the now-rechristened Sheraton Panama City Beach Golf & Spa Resort was held Oct. 10, 2019, just one year after Hurricane Michael struck the Florida Panhandle. It now features 200 brand new guestrooms, along with three freshly redone restaurants and 60,000 sq. ft. of meeting space. And, the new metal roofing covering many of the resort’s amenities will be keeping guests protected from the elements for decades to come.
