Workforce housing construction on Knights Key will start in February

Construction on a 199-room resort at the Knights Key RV Resort and Marina in Marathon will begin in May while a groundbreaking for 30 workforce housing units is set for next month.

Plans for the resort, which has yet to be named, have been in progress since July 2015 by Keys developer Pritam Singh. He built the Truman Annex housing development in Key West among other projects in the Lower Keys and Tranquility Bay Resort in Marathon.

Singh said 30 workforce housing units will go up in an area behind the Pigeon Key Visitor Center on the 24-acre Knights Key property at mile marker 47.5 oceanside. They will be two-bedroom units in one building, according to Singh’s son Noah, who is in charge of the housing. Rent ranges are not available yet.

“We weren’t required to build workforce housing as part of the project, but we figured it was the right thing to do,” he said.

The property came with 199 transient units when Pritam Singh purchased it in 2015, telling the Marathon Planning Commission at the time a hotel would benefit the city more than an RV park. A 2005 city ordinance allows RV spaces and hotel or motel rooms to be redeveloped into one- two and three-bedroom condo-hotel units.

Plans for the luxury hotel consist of 10 buildings with 199 rooms. A pool with a bar will be next to 40 of the rooms. The rest will overlook the ocean near a four-acre beach and restaurant.

“As a single development, this is the largest in the last 20 to 30 years in the Keys,” he said.

As for the people staying in the 199 sites on Knights Key, Singh said they’ll have to be gone by May. A Knights Key employee who declined to be named said it will be a “full house” at the resort through the end of February.

This story was originally published January 4, 2017 at 9:22 AM with the headline "Workforce housing construction on Knights Key will start in February."