Mississippi Lodge That Hosted Al Capone, Elvis Gets New Life | Mississippi Information

By MARY PEREZ, The Sun Herald

GULFPORT, Overlook. (AP) — Two yrs back, Al Capone’s Hideout and Elvis’ getaway in Ocean Springs was in risk of staying demolished. But now Gulf Hills Resort has new, neighborhood proprietors with ideas for reworking the historic residence.

“We purchased it Dec. 31,” stated community Realtor Roxy Condrey, in partnership with Jennifer Jones.

She and her husband, Ted Condrey, operate numerous other enterprises in Ocean Springs. Resort Beatnik, the “tiny hotel” they built on Porter Avenue, is highlighted in the hottest version of Southern Residing journal.

Gulf Hills Lodge remains open up although they finish “deferred maintenance” and build a system for reviving the 94-yr previous inn created as a hideout for mobster Al Capone.

Political Cartoons

1st up was new mattresses, she stated, and offering cost-free WiFi.

Now they are doing work with Christian Preus Landscape Architecture on a master approach. The business developed a more walkable downtown Ocean Springs, landscape options for Mississippi Aquarium in Gulfport and MGM Park in Biloxi and other award-profitable layouts across the Southeast.

Just as the few did when they constructed Hotel Beatnik, they explained Gulf Hills Resort will merge contemporary nevertheless timeless decor and a throwback to a colorful era.

The redesign will recall the golden age of country club resorts and the 1950s, when Elvis Presley was courting Biloxi girl June Juanico and invested time at the resort.

They have images of Elvis drinking water skiing and hanging out at the Pink Pony lounge at the vacation resort. Condrey reported they found additional treasures in storage as they get to know the assets and its tale.

“It has awesome heritage,” she reported.

Judy Garland, Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe were being amongst the celebs who reportedly stayed close to mobsters in the villas on the waterfront at Gulf Hills.

Attendees over the yrs could perform croquet on the broad garden, catch waterskiing displays on the bay, solar by the pool and learn to ride like a cowboy when the resort was marketed as a dude ranch in the 1950s, Condreys explained.

Gulf Hills Golfing Club, adjacent to the resort, also was procured just lately and the new house owners have turned it into an government 9-gap golfing program plus Capones Restaurant and Speakeasy in homage to the earlier.

Passion FOR OCEAN SPRINGS

The Condreys moved from Louisiana to Ocean Springs 14 many years ago and received to do the job embellishing their new hometown.

They opened Rain Residential Genuine Estate and the Inn at Ocean Springs, which they now market as The Inns of Ocean Springs considering that they began controlling The Hemingway, a new boutique resort in the downtown.

They partnered to open up The Roost Boutique Lodge on Porter Avenue and are preparing to begin on the Ocean Springs Collective throughout Porter Avenue from Resort Beatnik.

“We’re carrying out web-site do the job correct now,” she said. They took down a worn 1970s dwelling on the residence and program to make the professional collective in phases.

A bookstore, market place, restaurant and wine store will be in the to start with phase alongside with an office for Rain Household. Also in the options are a fitness studio and nano brewery and restaurant.

Their final decision to obtain and restore the historic Gulf Hills Lodge comes just after it was for sale for a long time.

In 2019, an investor proposed restoring the resort and opening an upscale RV park around the waterfront. The neighbors did not like the notion of campers navigating the roadways through the growth or switching the landscape, and the offer died.

Now the neighbors will check out to see how the Condreys use their abilities to make over and make greater the practically century-aged location.