The messages and calls kept coming.

Former restaurant, bar, and nightclub owner Jill McDonald, whose resume included one of the earlier iterations of AQUA on Duval Street in Key West, was already retired when the news started breaking.

AquaPlex Key West, part of PRIDE Holdings Group, would abruptly shut its doors amid allegations of unpaid rent and wages, becoming one of several LGBTQ businesses with ties to the group to be rocked by turmoil this past summer.

McDonald and her longtime partner, Sandy Thomas, headed from Venice, Florida, back to Key West to get a better sense of what exactly was unfolding and to answer an important question:

Did the two have it in them for one more act?

Possibly one of the most consequential comebacks in Key West’s recent LGBTQ history.

The answer was yes.

“I felt the devastation that they were feeling and I just thought, I can do this one more time,” McDonald said, referencing staff members who dated back to her years as an owner.

Within weeks of that initial visit, McDonald took to social media to reveal that the lease at 711 Duval Street had been signed and the old name would return: AQUA.

The announcement was brief, perhaps reflecting her expedient approach to what appears to be a huge undertaking, particularly with an October reopening in sight.

Anyone expecting the old AQUA to simply be spruced up and switched back on will be in for a surprise.

The interior will be completely remodeled.

“People won’t recognize it,” McDonald said. “I hope they don’t recognize it because we’re going to be doing a whole lot to it. There isn’t a surface that isn’t going to be touched.”

Even the rear portion of the venue, formerly known as Back Bar, will get a new identity: Swell.

When it comes to the faces inside the space, however, many may prove familiar. McDonald and Thomas expect to reunite with some of the original staff, along with the Aquanettes.

The comeback is expected to be something of a return to form for the once-celebrated nightclub, with live performers, DJs, festival parties and charitable sing-offs all part of the familiar DNA. McDonald also promises new attractions and events.

Her brief online announcement proclaimed that AQUA was “Resurfacing.”

And with that, so too did an audience of locals, visitors, industry insiders and longtime fans, many of whom had gone from shock over the AquaPlex crisis to excitement that the spot would return sooner than expected.

For McDonald, the response has been heartwarming.

“I mean, the outreach, the number of people that have reached out to me offering help in any form is incredible,” she said. “And that’s one of the things that obviously I love about this island.”

“It’s one of the things that brought me back to this island because there is no place like Key West. There just isn’t.”

For AQUA updates: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61593629864560