Naples Grande Beach Resort open for business 3 months after Irma

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Naples Grande Beach Resort. Credit: WINK News

It’s been 96 days since Hurricane Irma and the Naples Grande Beach Resort is finally open again to customers.

There are more than 400 rooms at the hotel and only about 90 of them are ready to receive guests tonight. That’s because millions of dollars had to be spent cleaning up after Irma hit it hard.

“The best thing I think that happened for all of us was going through the experience together,” that’s how Christopher Adams, the director of housekeeping at the Naples Grande, feels about Hurricane Irma.

During the storm part the ceiling collapsed, water was coming down from the roof, but it’s now been repaired and the carpet all around it is new.

SERIES: Complete coverage of Irma Recovery

“We have all this landscaping going in half-a-million dollars in landscaping alone,” said Frank Cavella director of sales & marketing for the resort. He says the economic impact here is still being calculated.

The storm shut them down for three months, “They would’ve dined. They would’ve gone to the spa, had cocktails, bought stuff in the retail shop.” Cavella said.

Millions of dollars were lost and then millions more went back into the resort for repairs, just in time for the holiday season.

“People take a great deal of pride in what they do,” said Adams “and now they feel an ownership stake in the whole environment here.”

And they say they feel like family here.

Photos taken at Naples Grande Beach resort during or immediately after Hurricane Irma vs Friday when the hotel reopened. Credit: WINK News

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