It's no easy task to construct a multi-million dollar hotel on an island, but developers in Portland, Maine, have done it twice.
The Inn at Diamond Cove opens on July 10 on Great Diamond Island in Casco Bay, about four miles from Portland. The $12 million hotel has 44 rooms, which range from $300 to $500 a night.
The structure was originally a military base, built in the late 1800s. Fort McKinley survived the Spanish American War, WWI and WWII.
"It sat here for many years crumbling, and its resurgence has been mythical," said developer David Bateman.
It took years of planning and constructing to build the luxury hotel.
"There was a lot of controversy," said architect David Lloyd. "The building was in very bad structural repair."
The inn was originally set to open in November of 2013, but a fire destroyed everything but the exterior walls.
"I think it was probably one of the more devastating things in my life," said Bateman. "We were so close to completing."
Bateman said the cause of the fire has not been determined. He said 48 hours after it happened, developers vowed to build again.
It took a year and a half, but the Inn at Diamond Cove is ready to open again. In the lobby entrance, guests will see a stained glass phoenix, the mythical bird that burns and is reborn from its own ashes. In the stained glass depiction, the phoenix is holding a bottle, which is full of the inn's ashes from the fire in 2013.
"Whether it was our fire here, or the struggles of the city of Portland, it seemed to us that the phoenix was a fitting symbol," said Bateman.
