HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. – Offshore in Tampa Bay, boaters can find the deserted Pine Key on Paradise Island — known to locals as “Beer Can Island.”
The 9-acre island is situated just a few miles from the local MacDill Air Force Base and Apollo Beach, having been a hotspot to local partygoers for decades.
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And now, it’s up for sale.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, the man-made island was created in the 1940s via dredging, a process whereby sand or other materials are scooped out of a construction site and placed somewhere else.
Australian pine trees, an invasive plant that thrives in Florida’s climate, were later planted on the island to help prevent erosion.
Thanks to its location, boaters frequently visited the island to relax, though that led to an accumulation of trash like beer cans (hence the nickname).
The island continued to be used for dredging until 2017, which is when Russell Loomis — along with three of his friends — decided to buy the island for a different purpose.
Loomis told News 6 that while living in South America years ago, he noticed that many areas in the region had floating restaurants and tiki bars in their waterways. So he set out to do the same in Florida.
“I thought to myself, ‘Why don’t we have anything like that in the United States?’ And so I wanted to build some like that,” he explained.
As a result, Loomis looped in his friends and purchased the property, and they went to work removing all the trash that littered the island.
“It was literally not on the beach itself, but in the interior of the island,” Loomis stated. “There was trash all over the place, and we must have hauled 300 or 400 bags worth of it... And there was everything: from umbrellas to pears to canopies, you name it — obviously, hundreds of bottles of beer cans and so on.”
Eventually, they brought in attractions like a giant slide, portable bathrooms and tiki bars for visitors to enjoy.
According to Loomis, the island project saw a lot of success, with plenty of guests and partygoers coming to check it out.
While the island had already been a famous attraction for locals and tourists, the new features helped to kick things off, Loomis said.
The enterprise kept on until earlier this year, which is when the island was closed to the public and put up on the market for over $14 million.
The long work hours needed to keep the business going had taken a toll, and damage from Hurricane Idalia last year only compounded the problems, Loomis told News 6.
“If I had an extra $10 million to dump into it, I would beautify the place even more, but I just don’t have the resources for it. So that’s one thing,” he said. “And then secondly, I live an hour and a half away, and getting over there is a chore. And it’s even worse coming home at the end of the night, you know? I’ll head out there at 6 a.m. and usually don’t get out of there till 9 o’clock at night.”
Fox 13 reports that county commissioners have historically been opposed to the island’s use, arguing that it’s too difficult for first responders to get out there in case of an emergency.
However, despite the pushback, the island is currently unzoned.
In addition, the island’s website says that whoever buys the island may rename it if they so choose.
One of the prospective buyers — Nick Lipidarov, CEO of Children of Faith, Inc. — is putting together a project that would allow members of the public to be joint owners of the island.
He said that the project, dubbed “Save Beer Can Island,” would allow buyers to pledge $1,000 for partial ownership of the property.
The funds collected through the pledges would go into an Escrow account, and they would only be put toward purchases involving the island, Lipidarov explained.
“This includes the purchase price of the land, taxes and legal fees, website, domain, and other operational costs related directly to the island,” the project’s website reads.
If the sale doesn’t go through, then the funds would be returned to their respective pledgees, Lipidarov added.
However, if the sale does go through, those who pledged would be allowed to use the island and vote on what should be done with it, such as whether it should allow public access or whether structures should be built there, the project’s website states.
“I don’t think too many people are gonna go out and purchase an island, so there’s an opportunity for all of us to own an island together, which is a pretty neat opportunity,” Lipidarov told News 6.
While the website says that the island needs to be paid for by April 30, Lipidarov said that it’s a tentative date, and it might be pushed back a couple of weeks.
He also said that over 200 people have already pledged for shares of the island.
For more information on the sale of Beer Can Island, click here.
For more information on the “Save Beer Can Island” project, click here.
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