New business coming to Jackson County

MARIANNA, Fla. A local businessman is bringing a new concept to downtown Marianna in the former Marianna Office Supply building. This building began its life in 1920 as the home of the Porter Carroll Hardware Company. The Marianna Office Supply took it over in 1954 and kept it until 2018, when Hurricane Michael heavily damaged it.

If everything goes as planned, the 105-year-old building will begin its third chapter as a one-of-a-kind 15-room boutique hotel with a restaurant and bar.

“We’re using some grant dollars in part to do the restoration. The developer is bringing some of his own money to the table for the need for the restoration, and so it’s really a partnership, a public-private partnership between the city and the Johnson Development Group for this project,” says Marianna City Manager William Long.

The city received a three-million-dollar grant from the Rebuild Florida Hometown Revitalization Program.

The money came through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program.

The challenge will be creating a modern hotel while maintaining the historical nature of the building.

“So it is really an effort to preserve as much of the character of that building, having been built back in the early 1900s, I think,” says Long.

The building is located on Constitution Lane in downtown Marianna. 

City leaders are hoping the partnership with Johnson Realty Development will help revitalize the downtown area.

Long says, “We’ve taken a look with the help of an outside group who would revitalize this, or help small towns revitalize, all over the United States. And a few things have become, we’ve become aware of that, making this necessary to improve your downtown. And that is, you’ve got to have places for people to stay downtown. You’ve got to have places to eat downtown, and you have to have the event space downtown.”

The city will maintain ownership of the building for at least five years, with the goal of one day transitioning ownership to someone else, most likely, the development group. 

Officials are hoping that the project will be finished in about a year.