ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. — Construction projects in Pinellas County have seen some substantial delays because of hurricanes Helene and Milton.

What You Need To Know

  • The Beach Theatre in St. Pete Beach continues to renovate its building even after dealing with hurricanes Helene and Milton

  • During Helene, about six feet of storm flooding blanketed the theater, while Milton blew out a portion of the theater's back wall

  • Hannah Hockman, who runs the Beach Theatre, says despite the damage from the storm, she was thankful none of the seats or pieces of technology were installed yet

  • Hockman hopes the theatre will be completed and reopened around the Spring of 2025

At the historic Beach Theatre in St. Pete Beach, delays in permitting and renovations are exacerbated by flooding and wind damage.

Weeks later, Hannah Hockman is still getting a lay of the land after the storms.

“This was all covered in water up until recently,” Hockman, who runs the Beach Theatre, said while walking through the back area of the theater. “So I haven't even been back here yet.”

Hockman bought the Beach Theatre in February and has been busy trying to renovate this more than 80-year-old cinema house.

In that time, there were delays in the permitting process which caused them to get behind schedule.

While that seemed like a bad thing at the time, it proved to be a sort of blessing for Hockman when Helene and Milton made landfall.

“We don't have the seats yet,” she said. “We don't have the tech yet. All we did have was 18 loads of dirt that we had just laid for the new floor.”

Even though about 6 feet of floodwaters blanketed the beach, no seats or tech were harmed, because nothing had been installed yet.

That said, there were two downsides to the storm.

First, flooding turned 18 loads of dirt into 18 loads of mud.

“We were standing here last week,” Hockman said. “I was. My feet were just sinking. And I was like, is this quicksand? Did we make quicksand?”

And the stage, which is an original piece of the beach that has been here since 1940’s, was underwater.

“It's hard to imagine that there was water back here,” Hockman said. “It really breaks my heart looking at it like this.”

That’s not even including what happened when Milton’s wind gusts knocked out a portion of the theatre’s back wall.

Despite all of this, when you talk with Hockman, she is optimistic.

“I really want this to thrive here,” she said. “And I think it will.”

Because the mud has dried, work is back in progress and Hockman wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I love this place, and I think anyone that knows me knows how much I truly care about this project,” Hockman said.

That love can be felt in this entire community recovering from the storms.

Hockman says even with a couple months' worth of delays and extra money needing to be spent following the storms, she hopes to reopen the beach theatre sometime around March.

She says they plan on investing in flood panels to prevent any future flooding for the theatre.