Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. Etheridge Construction won the bid to build the cabins, the infrastructure, and several other structures including a laundry and storage building and a shop. Larry Perry, manager for District III parks, based in DeLand, said the Park Service went through two to three bidding rounds before Etheridge was chosen to build the cabins. Six cabins will be built this year, four more at a later date. This comparison, while not apple for apple, still makes the park cabins twice as expensive as a residential home.
Numbers vary, depending on who's talking.
According to Kathalyn Gaither, spokesperson for DEP's communications office in Tallahassee, each cabin has 922 square feet. A screened-in porch has 640 square feet, bringing the total to 1,562 square feet. Obviously these are not primitive cabins, not inside, not outside. The outside infrastructure includes sidewalks, drainfields, septic tanks and site clearing. When the cabins are built, the Park Service will operate them.