PENSACOLA, Fla. – Navy FCU and Pen Air FCU announced this morning they are partnering to provide member business loan financing for a 152-room Holiday Inn resort development on nearby Oskaloosa Island, the two credit union giants’ third hotel project together.
Innisfree Hotels, a unit of Emerald Breeze Resort Group, LLC, will develop the resort on 17 acres owned by the U.S. Air Force, which will be leased to the Emerald Breeze Resort Group for 50 years. The resort project is expected to create more than 150 jobs on Okaloosa Island.
The Air Force and Eglin Air Force Base made the property available for private development as part of the Department of Defense’s Enhanced Use Lease Program. The program identifies property that is underutilized, but does have an ongoing mission requirement. Revenue generated from the program will be made available for use by Eglin Air Force Base, which is based nearby in Oskaloosa County. Although the hotel is being developed on federal property, the hotel will be open to the public.
This is the third successful Innisfree hotel development financed by the two credit unions. The other projects are the Holiday Inn Resort on Pensacola Beach, and the Hyatt Place Hotel at Pensacola International Airport, which will open in the spring of 2013.
The Emerald Breeze Resort Group project is scheduled for completion in March 2014.
Virginia-based Navy FCU is the world’s biggest credit union with $52 billion in assets, and Pensacola-based Pen Air FCU has $1.2 billion in assets.
