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Mitchell's Sandcastles on market on Sanibel
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$5.5 million sought
for beachfront cottages
By ANNE MITCHELL
Mitchell's Sandcastles, a 43 year-old collection of 15 cottages on one of Sanibel's best stretches of beachfront, is on the market for $5.5 million.
But the decision is not going down well with some of the people who have been renting thee rustic cottages on the sands for generations.
The owners, Barbara MitcheIl, and her daughters, Roxanne Palmer and Carolynn Miller, are selling the motel and its more than 2 acres of seashell-strewn land. Palmer, who has run the place "on and off for 30 years" says she's ready for a change, though she's not sure what.
"I hope it will continue to be a hotel," said Betty Savage of Detroit as she swept the front porch - just as she might at home.
She and her husband, Richard Savage, a retired U.S. Navy captain, have been coming to Mitchell's for 20 years. Savage's custom of lowering the U.S. flag on the three-bedroom cottage he rents for two months each winter now draws a crowd every night at sunset.
The white and gray cottages are homey, but that family atmosphere and the location - on the western end of West Gulf Drive, away from the condos - is what has kept people coming to Mitchell's. That, and the fact that it's one of the few places to stay on Sanibel that accepts pets of any size.
Trevor Nette, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker on Sanibel who is handling the sale, said condos won't replace the Sandcastles "because of the ordinances for the area." If someone doesn't buy it to keep the motel running, it likely will end up as the site for one or two single - family home, he said.
At more than $5 million, that's one pricey home site.
But Nette said that's the going rate for rapidly disappearing beachfront land on Sanibel.
"We just sold a home this week for $4.7 million a little bit up the street," he said.
Palmer was 5 years old when her father, Dean Mitchell, built the first dozen cottages in 1960. Mitchell died in 1989, leaving the place to his wife and two daughters.
Palmer said she's glad the rustic place won't be replaced by condos. "I wouldn't want to see that It's all I have known for so long. I will miss it We are in the fourth generation of family here," she said Her husband, Ralph Palmer, does maintenance and daughter Julie Morningstar, 27, helps out, often bringing along her own daughter, Marina, 6.
Winter rates run $125 to $225 and up a night for a one bedroom cottage to $230 to $235 for a three bedroom place - a bargain by Sanibel standards. Renters get a free day if they stay a week "We just like the Old Florida feeling," said Ruth Ensign from Richmond Va., who has been staying at the Sandcastles for more than 20 years. "You sweep out the floors, you don't have to vacuum It's just the way we like it."
The cottages aren't fancy, but they do have kitchens and TVs and coffeemakers. And they have broad porches that look out over the Gulf of Mexico, framed by sea oats. Some of the porches are stacked with seashells found on the beach -huge horse conchs and other mango-size shells that are hard to find these days.
They're not as plentiful these days either. Beach renourishment sand covered the offshore rocks, which were the source of the magnificent shells. A few big ones still roll onto the beach, though prizes for early-bird shellers.
Each year, Ensign adds to her collection, using some of the shells to decorate. Pine needle baskets she makes. "That's like knitting for me," she says of the baskets.
"Here you get to know people better, than you do at home," she said as she chatted with neighbors from her porch at the Driftwood Cottage.
The Savages rent a three-bedroom place so they can have family members visit And when they're not using their extra bedrooms, they make them available to other regulars with visiting relatives.
"We own some timeshares at South Seas Plantation, but this is so much nicer," said June Brodie of Terre Haute, Ind., who currently is staying at Sandcastles.
For Valentine's Day, guests threw a potluck lunch on the beach, and they recently organized a lunch at Chadwick's Restaurant on Captiva, carpooling, for the ride.
They recently all signed and sent a wish-you-well card to an 86-year-old woman who didn't make it back this year because of illness. But first they had to track her down, knowing only that an undertaker in her hometown drove her to Sanibel each year:
According to Ensign, regulars pitched in and called all the funeral homes in the town until they found him, then they asked him to get an update on her health. She was OK but still weak. Ensign called her, which cheered her up a lot. Jessi Stark, manager of the Sandcastles for 15 years, can attest to the neighborliness. Recently sidelined after foot surgery, she received a steady stream of visitors - even cooked food - from among the guests as she recuperated on her porch.
Getting the cottages closest to the Gulf can take patience. "Illness or death" is what it takes, according to George Hawthorne from Cleveland. "These are the two ways to get into Sandcastles." We moved up (closer to the Gulf) because of illness," he admitted.
"This is the kind of place Sanibel should have remained, instead of million dollar rows of houses that nobody lives in," Hawthorne added.
Other old cottages that have bitten the dust recently include more than 30 moved last year from the Pink Shell, Fort Myers Beach, to make room for condos. However, six tiny cottages at 'Tween Waters Inn, Captiva, have been-renovated and dedicated to some of the island's first tourists - President Teddy Roosevelt, and aviator Charles Lindbergh, among others.
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