Just a month after winning the rights to develop a Margaritaville Resort in Hollywood Beach, Florida, the Pensacola News Journal reports that Jimmy Buffett will build a Margaritaville Beach Hotel in Pensacola, Florida:

The legendary singer-songwriter has reached an agreement with Pensacola developer Marilyn Woodbury-Hess to launch the first Margaritaville Beach Hotel in a $50 million, 162-room Gulf-front hotel expected to open in late May or early June.

Buffett’s Orlando-based development partner, Jim Wiseman, announced the deal during the Santa Rosa Island Authority’s regular board meeting Wednesday evening.

Wiseman said the decision to launch the hotel brand in Pensacola was the result of three weeks of rapid-fire meetings he and Buffett held with Woodbury-Hess’ Little Sabine Inc., developers of the property owned by American Fidelity Life Insurance Co.

“Up until three weeks ago, our plans were to locate the first Margaritaville Beach Hotel in Hollywood, Fla.,” Wiseman told Island Authority members. “It’s really providential how this all came about. It was meant to be at Pensacola Beach.”

Wiseman noted that Buffett, a Mobile native, “grew up on Pensacola Beach” and his strong affinity for the area factored heavily into the decision to locate the first hotel there.

Woodbury-Hess’ deal with Buffett comes on the heels of a falling-out with Indigo, a boutique brand developed by IMG, parent company of Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Intercontinental franchises.

“This is not just an economic boost for Pensacola Beach and this community, but we will have the advertising and billing of Jimmy Buffet,” Woodbury-Hess said.

In addition to the hotel, Wiseman said plans are under way to build a 5,000-square-foot temporary gazebo-like structure immediately east of the hotel.

A large restaurant and water park also are part of the second phase development plan for the Gulf-front property, Wiseman said.

Preliminary site plans for the gazebo, additional parking and other exterior amenities were approved unanimously by the SRIA.

The hotel is on land once occupied by the Holiday Inn, built in 1972 and destroyed by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

Jimmy Buffett’s double-CD live, acoustic encores album is now available for download at iTunes for $11.99.

“Encores” features 22 of Jimmy’s intimate final encore songs recorded during the 2008/2009 tour. This unique collection showcases Jimmy solo acoustic (12 songs), features a few special guests and is unlike anything he’s released before.

Track List:

Disc 1

1. Come Monday
2. Tin Cup Chalice
3. Growing Older But Not Up
4. Coast Of Carolina
5. Paradise
6. Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans
7. Nautical Wheelers
8. Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season
9. Banana Republics
10. He Went To Paris
11. Last Mango In Paris

Disc 2

1. L’air De La Louisiane
2. Reggabilly Hill
3. Coast Of Marseilles
4. Lovely Cruise
5. Oysters And Pearls
6. Wildflowers
7. Defying Gravity
8. Big Old Goofy World
9. Death Of An Unpopular Poet
10. Blowin’ In The Wind
11. A Pirate Looks At Forty

Get “Encores” at iTunes now!

You can also get the MP3 album at Walmart.com for $9.00.

While Jimmy Buffett was in Jamaica last Friday to christen the new Boscobel Aerodrome, he also hopped over to his Margaritaville in Ocho Rios to attend a welcome home party for Newton Marshall who recently completed the Iditarod dogsled race.

Jamaica’s dogsled musher, Newton Marshall, received a grand welcome Friday afternoon at Margaritaville’s Ocho Rios during a special welcome home party dubbed “Rootin’ for Newton”.

Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville is Marshall’s main sponsor and Buffet was on hand to congratulate and celebrate with the musher who became the first black man to complete the Iditarol.

Also celebrating with Marshall were entertainment, sports and culture minister Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange and Chukka Caribbean’s Danny Melvin who established the Jamaica Dogsled team and where Marshal is employed as a dog musher.

Business mogul Chris Blackwell, Margaritaville’s CEO Ian Dear and executive director Mike Shamry and St Ann Custos Radcliffe Walters and wife Norma also joined in the celebration.

Entertainment was provided by the selectors at the turn tables at Margaritaville and they included in their selection several of Buffett’s hit.

Marshall said he was pleased with the love and support he has received from Buffet and all his other sponsors and Chuckka Caribbean for establishing the Dogsled team and believing in him.

Marshall placed 47 in the 2010 Iditarod in Alaska and finished the race in 12 days, 4 hours, 27 minutes and 28 seconds.

Northern Light Media has more: “The Jamaican: Newton Marshall”

(Photo by Brian Webb)

The Jamaica Information Service has another article and a few photos from Jimmy’s flight into the Boscobel Aerodrome last Friday (see our original story from Saturday). Jimmy was the first international passenger to fly in and be processed by customs at the airport on the north coast of Jamaica:

Buffett exits the Pilatus PC-12 after landing at Boscobel

Jimmy shows off his welcome gift. With him is Youth, Sports and Culture Minister, Hon. Olivia Grange (left) and Chris Blackwell of Island Outposts

The Pilatus PC-12 that Buffett was flying is a 2010 model registered to Epps Air Service in Atlanta, GA. The aircraft was recently listed for sale but the listing has been removed. So is this another addition to Buffett’s fleet of airplanes that already includes a Falcon 900, Cessna Caravan, Grumman Goose, and Stearman? If Buffett did purchase the airplane, it will show up in registration records in the next couple months.

The PC-12 does make sense for Buffett. It fills a niche between his Falcon 900 trijet and Cessna Caravan single engine turboprop on amphibious floats. The PC-12 is also a single engine turboprop, but has a much larger cabin and can fly over 100 mph faster than the Caravan. It has excellent short field capability and would be much more efficient for shorter trips than the Falcon.

On Friday Jimmy Buffett flew the first flight into the new Boscobel Aerodrome in Jamaica. He was greeted warmly (no shots fired) by Sports Minister Olivia Grange, Airports Authority of Jamaica (AAJ) chairman Mark Hart, and Island Records founder Chris Blackwell:

“I just got to say what a thrill it is to come directly into Boscobel; this just makes things so much easier,” Buffett said.

He also commended the processing by immigration officials who were brought in just for the occasion, saying the experience was “lovely”.

But Buffett might have inadvertently disclosed that the expanded facility would be named Ian Fleming Airport – in memory of the creator of the famed James Bond series – who lived and penned several of the James Bond stories just a few miles away at Golden Eye in Oracabessa, now owned by Blackwell.

“It’s the ease with which you come in and go out, which this airport – which I hope will be named Ian Fleming Airport – allows,” said Buffett.

Hart later responded in the affirmative when a reporter asked him if the facility would indeed be named Ian Flemming Airport.

Grange tried to hide the revelation, butting in: “Well, we have to … we’re not going to pre-empt anything this morning. Sufficient to say we will have a name, and it will have a famous name.”

Blackwell referred to the Anguilla airport as being one that facilitates easy access by private aircraft and even smaller commercial planes, and suggested that such a model could be followed.

“When you establish something with ease to come in, it will attract people; it has a big effect on business. Any place that takes the pressure off Manley and Sangster (airports) is going to help,” Buffett said.

Grange thanked Buffett and had special commendation for Blackwell, saying:

“I want to use the opportunity to thank Chris Blackwell. He really must be commended because I remember the very first discussion about expanding the facility here and the opportunity that it will create, and in record time, it’s been a success.”

Listen to a short audio interview with Buffett here.

An interesting sidenote… the aircraft in the picture is a Pilatus PC-12. In the photo caption in the article it says the airplane is “Buffett’s private plane.” If it is indeed his plane, then this is a recent addition to Jimmy’s fleet.

The PC-12 pictured is a 2010 model registered to Pilatus so it’s possible that Jimmy recently bought it or was demoing it. Or it could be neither and he was just chartering it. If you know anything about Jimmy owning a PC-12, please drop us an email.

(Photos by Carl Gilchrist (top) and Alesia Edwards)