At Sunseeker Resort Charlotte Harbor, sunburnt guests in Michigan and Ohio State gear — the unofficial uniforms of Southwest Florida tourism — wait at the poolside for long-delayed fruity cocktails. The scene captures the essence of a property that opened with grand ambitions but now finds itself on the selling block.
“I waited 45 minutes for my drink,” says Daniel from Bangor, Maine, nursing his finally arrived margarita at the resort’s rooftop bar on a February afternoon — squarely in the region’s peak tourist season when most Florida resorts operate at capacity with premium pricing. But Sunseeker had only a few bartenders and servers working, who were clearly overrun, even with only half the seats around the bar filled. When asked if he believes the property is understaffed as owner Allegiant Air tries to offload it, Daniel shrugs: “It sure seems like it.”
The massive complex rises incongruously from the modest Charlotte Harbor waterfront, its gleaming towers dwarfing the surrounding single-story businesses. Unlike the organically developed luxury scenes in nearby Naples or the barrier islands of Sanibel and Captiva, Sunseeker feels parachuted in — a Las Vegas company’s vision of Florida luxury that seems disconnected from its surroundings.
Inside, the 25,000-square-foot Harbor Yards Food Hall resembles an upscale airport concourse more than a resort amenity, complete with various food stalls under soaring ceilings. The cavernous space — often half-empty during February’s high season when restaurants throughout Southwest Florida have waiting lists — reinforces the sensation of still being in transit rather than having arrived at a destination.
Daniel represents Allegiant Travel Company’s ideal customer journey: He flew directly to Punta Gorda on an Allegiant flight and booked a stay at the company’s resort after seeing it advertised on the site. But this vertical integration strategy that once seemed brilliant is now being dismantled.
Las Vegas-based Allegiant announced last month that it expects to sell the 785-room Sunseeker Resort by early summer. CEO Greg Anderson said during a Feb. 4 conference call that the company is in discussions with “a high single-digit number of investors” interested in purchasing either all or a majority stake in the property.
Savanthi Syth, an analyst with investment firm Raymond James, maintains an “Outperform” rating on Allegiant stock. Syth noted in a recent analysis that the company has already written down Sunseeker’s carrying value and prepaid its $350 million construction loan. Syth expressed confidence that, “provided there are no hiccups, management’s base case is to complete a transaction (stake or total sale) by summer.”
The move comes as Raymond James increased its target price for Allegiant stock from $110 per share to $125, reflecting the airline’s potential for improved margins once freed from the Sunseeker burden.Syth noted that Allegiant is “the only U.S. airline expecting 2025 year-over-year RASM to outperform year-over-year CASM-ex,” industry metrics indicating better revenue performance relative to costs.
Allegiant’s hospitality venture represents one of the more ambitious airline diversification attempts, though not the first. Virgin Group famously expanded from airlines into hotels and cruise ships, while Pan Am once operated a hotel division. More recently, AirAsia launched a chain of airport hotels and food service businesses. Few airlines, however, have invested so heavily in a single destination property with such tenuous connections to their route network.
Sunseeker’s journey has been turbulent from the start. After breaking ground in 2019 on Charlotte Harbor land purchased for $30 million, the project faced multiple setbacks. Construction halted for 17 months during the pandemic. Hurricane Ian caused $35 million in damage when giant cranes crashed into the building in 2022. A fire in February 2023 further delayed progress.
By the time Sunseeker finally opened in December 2023, it was three years behind schedule and approximately $225 million over budget, with total costs exceeding $700 million. More recently, Hurricanes Helene and Milton last fall caused an additional $5.7 million in damage.
Financial results have disappointed investors. While occupancy improved from 54% in Q4 2024 to 60% in Q1 2025, with average room rates rising from $238 to $320 per night, the property recorded a staggering $321.8 million impairment charge in Q4 2024, dragging down Allegiant’s otherwise solid airline performance.
For Charlotte County, which lost approximately 250 hotel rooms to Hurricane Ian, Sunseeker initially appeared to be a tourism lifeline. But its scale and luxury positioning seem better suited to the established wealth of Naples or the tourist density of Fort Myers Beach than the working-class waterfront of Charlotte Harbor.
As Anderson guides Allegiant back to its core competency in low-cost air travel, the Sunseeker experiment represents an expensive lesson in the challenges of airline diversification. For the future buyer, however, the property offers a ready-made luxury resort in a growing Florida market — albeit one requiring operational refinement and perhaps a better understanding of its place within the local ecosystem.
—Jackie Snow, Contributing Editor