Demolition has begun on Sandcastle Resort on Lido Key

By S.T. Cardinal
| 5:00 a.m. August 15, 2025

Sandcastle Resort at Lido Beach was a 176-unit hotel on Benjamin Franklin Drive. On Wednesday, Aug. 13, demolition continued on the building which suffered extensive damage from 2024 hurricanes.

Sarasota
News

The Sandcastle Resort on Lido Key is now a heap of twisted metal and scattered cinderblocks.

Demolition has begun on the formerly 176-room hotel at 1540 Benjamin Franklin Drive just about a mile from St. Armands Circle after the building suffered extensive flood damage from hurricanes Helene and Milton.

The sign remains, for now, as the Sandcastle Resort at Lido Beach is demolished on Lido Key Wednesday, Aug. 13. A new hotel will be built on the site by Opal, though details are yet to be shared by developers.

Now Opal, which owns about two dozen luxury hotels in Florida including the nearby Cirque St. Armands, Zota Beach Resort and The Resort at Longboat Key Club — is planning a project on the 6-acre beachfront plot of land where the Sandcastle is being knocked down.

To knock down this sandcastle, heavy machinery was necessary. The Sandcastle Resort at Lido Key is being demolished Wednesday, Aug. 13, and the ownership group behind St. Regis, Cirque and other Florida hotels and resorts have plans to build anew at the location sandwiched by the Gulf and Benjamin Franklin Drive.

Details are yet to be revealed about what Opal has planned, but the company’s website says to expect “a relaxed yet refined coastal retreat” with “all the classic hallmarks of an Opal: signature hospitality, luxury accommodations, an enhanced guest experience, and the best in food and beverage.”

Plans have not been submitted to the city of Sarasota for review, and the company has not responded to a request from the Observer for more information as of mid-August.

author

S.T. Cardinal

S.T. "Tommy" Cardinal is the Longboat Key news reporter. The Sarasota native earned a degree from the University of Central Florida in Orlando with a minor in environmental studies. In Central Florida, Cardinal worked for a monthly newspaper covering downtown Orlando and College Park. He then worked for a weekly newspaper in coastal South Carolina where he earned South Carolina Press Association awards for his local government news coverage and photography.