17 North Beach Street
Nantucket, MA 02554
(508) 228-1515
All In the Family
Blue Flag Capital's new kid-centric hotel.
Written by Antonia DePace
With questions looming about the future availability of short-term rentals, the spotlight has begun to shift back toward hotels for those seeking vacation alternatives, particularly for those with families. Nantucket’s economic engine is clearly driven by tourism, and the recent ruling against corporate ownership of short-term rentals has generated significant concern about the island’s ability to adequately provide for vacation accommodations. For Blue Flag Capital, timing is everything, and its acquisition and redevelopment of The Beachside Hotel may prove to be propitious. Blue Flag Capital acquired the dated, 100-room hotel in 2021 and executed a total redesign, transforming it into a family-friendly boutique accommodation that opened in late August.
"I’ve got three kids—10, eight, and three. Brad has two kids of similar ages,” Jason Brown, Blue Flag Capital co-founder and CEO, says. “We felt like there wasn’t anything fun, but also a little bit cool and design-forward, that we wanted to go to, and Beachside presented that opportunity with this vast campus of endless possibilities.”
With that mission in mind, the hotel near Brant Point is themed around endless summers. According to Brad Guidi, Blue Flag Capital co-founder and chief development officer, “there’s this shared human experience where we feel like everybody can equate summer to your first inkling of freedom as a child.”
“What we were setting out to do is really bring back that nostalgia for us in an environment that the kids are going to have an unbelievable time in,” Brown adds.
The duo has certainly succeeded. The 3.5-acre property has a swimming pool, baby pool, gym, guest-only restaurant with quick bites, an arcade, fire pits, a retail store, outdoor movie nights in partnership with the Dreamland, local food trucks, and fun activities with Barnaby’s. There is also an event space on the property, meant for birthday parties, small private dinners, and other micro-events.
Interestingly enough, while there are a limited number of family-oriented hotels on the island, none of them zero in on the child experience quite like The Beachside Hotel, which presents an interesting opportunity for a company that has established an oversized presence in the hospitality business on Nantucket, including the Faraway Nantucket Hotel, Woodbox Inn, the former Century House Inn, and the Brass Lantern Inn, among others.
Working in tandem with New York’s Parts and Labor Design, Brown and Guidi chose a mid-century modern vibe with a saturated color palette of maroons, blues, and greens. “When you walk in, you’re going to be greeted with this beautiful terracotta, red, and cream color floor, and that terracotta is the thread that ties the design together throughout the whole property,” says Guidi. For one of his favorite elements, he notes the seafoam-green tile bar that has an indoor-outdoor element with a large, retractable window. In the same area, a large patio covered in sun sails creates an area for parents to relax while children can play in the pool nearby.
Throughout the property, custom furniture, trinkets, and two original pieces of artwork by Sean Spellman add to the charm. “We’ve taken everything we’ve learned from the other hotels to the next level here,” Brown says. “It’s very different from the other stuff that we’ve done in a way that we want to push the envelope a little bit, and I think it will be really interesting and fascinating to see how people react to that.”
The Beachside is open through the season. Stroll before closing to prepare for next season.
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