The Abandoned Treasure Island Inn of Daytona Beach - Revisited in 2011

The Treasure Island Hotel still stands empty and unloved, broken windows and vacant rooms staring vacuously over the waves and sand of the Atlantic. Along those sands, a daily procession of cars and vehicles saunter slowly past, with many, like me, probably wondering the same thing: How did a hotel so large and immense end up closing?

It had been a year since I last saw the once glorious Inn. Not that I ever had the opportunity to visit it in its bustling heyday -- no, rather, it had been a year since I last gazed upon the wreckage of what once was a place of fun and wonder. How do I know this was once a fun and exciting place? From the numerous stories that flow from the comment fields of my 2010 article on the Treasure Island. From these sometimes sad recollections I've discerned that tourists and visitors loved this place... its location, its pools and the people they met. Some tell tales of returning year after year, revisiting and reconnecting with friends of old, enjoying the fresh smell of the lobby and openness of the halls with fresh sea breezes flowing through. The huge pirate above the front entrance. Some are dismayed at visiting 2025 South Atlantic Blvd and finding the business closed. In the ensuing Internet search, they found my article, and photos (2010's pictures). Many seem very saddened by the destruction and abandonment they found. Others told of happier times such as honeymooning 31-years ago in hotel room #1111.

The Past

Known by a couple of different names -- Treasure Island Inn, Treasure Island Hotel, Treasure Island Resort -- this structure has all the makings of a haunted 11-story building. Built along the sandy, and drivable, shores of Daytona Beach, the hotel sustained huge amounts of damage from the 2004 Hurricane season. That year saw not one, but three different storms lash out against the state of Florida. And Daytona felt her share of the fury. Some establishments, like the Talisman Lodge (See story), received so much damage that they were eventually demolished. Maybe that should have happened to the T.I. but here, seven years later, the property and building still sits.

Summer of 2011 Visit

I visited the hotel on an early Tuesday morning, and managed to shoot some new angles with my new-to-me-but-used Nikon D40 camera. They're the photos attached above to this article. (You can click on each of them for a larger view.) The pictures tell a sad tale. Destruction still creeps around the property. The Tiki Bar especially looks like it's taken some serious hits. The pool deck is still strewn with debris. The largest of the pools -- the 10-1/2 foot deep one -- still rests with stagnant, green water. Along the main structure, the windows -- or should I say lack of windows -- really jumped out at me. More of them seem to be broken or shattered since the last time I was here. So sad.

Baseball and Chatting about a certain Abandoned Hotel

On the following evening, I found myself at Daytona's Jackie Robinson stadium taking in the beautiful colors of the field, players and sky. My ever vigilant and courageous friend, Greg, decided around the 3^rd inning to attempt an impromptu "upgrade" of our General Admission bleacher seats. I responded, or at least thought, "Yeah, right! Good luck with that." Five minutes later he was waving me down to sit in the stadium's corporate box seats -- directly behind home plate! - chatting with the owner of said seats. When the owner asked Greg and I where we were staying in Daytona, I truthfully told him, "The Dolphin Beach Club" and was met with a scowl. Uh oh.

"I should throw you both out of these seats," he said half-seriously. "You're not staying in any of my hotels."

"I, uhhh...." Gulp! I remembered yesterday's photo shoot. Maybe a change of subject was in order.

"How about the Treasure Island Inn?" I asked him. "Do you know anything about what's happening with it?"

"Treasure Island? Yeah, that's one of our hotels. Never did see it while it was operational. But it's all tangled up in lawsuits right now."

I know I probably tried to keep my mouth from dropping open, but inwardly I was once again marveling at how God seemed to open up the most amazing doors to learn and discover all these cool, abandoned places. And at a baseball game? Sitting in the most expensive seats in the stadium... Who would have thunk!

I told him of my fascination with the place and he shared his ongoing frustration with vagrants and all. "We keep boarding it up, and they keep breaking in. Even stealing the copper pipes from the walls. Why, at one point they'd even set up a shop inside near the front lobby."

I wondered at my zoomed in shot of the Treasure Island's front doors, where the concierge podium still sat. (It's photo #5 of this article.) Was this where some kind of shop for homeless folks was in operation? Or was it a "come and buy stolen copper piping" kind of place? I never found out. As I was about to ask him for more information about this "shop", something happened on the baseball field and our attentions got diverted. When the conversation came back around, it had shifted to my love of Sand Sculpting and I began fielding questions of a much more 'gritty' nature.

The Treasure Island's Future: Uncertain

In a March 2011 article from The Daytona Beach News-Journal, business writer Hilary Lehman quotes the CEO of the Hotel and Lodging Association of Volusia County, Bob Davis. Mr. Davis was the former general manager at Treasure Island back when it was an award-winning hotel: "It was a premier property in Daytona Beach," Davis says. "Unfortunately, what's happened to it, it's a blight. It doesn't look good on the avenue."

In a May 2011 article, also by Hilary Lehman, Bob Hietala, Inner Circle's vice president of hotel operations is quoted as saying "I just wish someone would tear it down."

A few days after my visit to the deteriorating building I made a phone call to one of Daytona Beach's tourism centers and asked about information on the Treasure Island. They acknowledged that the question of the hotel's condition comes in quite often, but no one knows for sure what will happen.

As ownership of the decaying structure is argued in the courts, the Treasure Island Inn continues to crumble. It's future still uncertain. Will it rise again?

Time will tell.

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More Info

Ron Masters' Photography -- photos of the Treasure Island Inn taken June 2011

2010 -- The Abandoned Treasure Island Hotel in Daytona Beach

2010 - Photos of The Treasure Island Inn

The Ruins of Daytona Beach's Talisman Lodge