Plans for $35M Merrick Park hotel head to Coral Gables board

Hersha CEO Jay Shah and a rendering of the REIT's Merrick Park Hotel
Hersha CEO Jay Shah and a rendering of the REIT's Merrick Park Hotel

Hersha Hospitality Trust is looking to build a 135-room hotel on vacant land at the Village of Merrick Park. 

The Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based hotel real estate investment trust will go before the Coral Gables Development Review Committee on Friday for a site plan amendment to the $35 million development.

General Growth Properties, which owns the Shops at Merrick Park, owns the 29,500-square-foot lot where the hotel would be built, at 4241 Aurora Street. Hersha plans to build a seven-story, 161,500-square-foot hotel to be designed by NBWW.

Plans filed with the city show the high-end, boutique hotel would include a 10,000-square-foot restaurant.

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Also in the works for the Village of Merrick Park is a new movie theater and a new boutique condo project. Roger Development Group is building Laguna House, a 10-story, 13-unit luxury condo at the shops. Roger recently hired EWM to take over remaining sales from ONE Sotheby’s International Realty.

The Coral Gables committee will also review plans for a new Artefacto furniture showroom and review the plat for Mediterranean Village, the agenda shows. Agave Ponce, tied to the tequila brand Jose Cuervo, is developing Mediterranean Village at Ponce Circle, a mixed-use project with 227 residential units, 180 hotel rooms, 290,000 square feet of office space, 290,000 square feet of retail space, and a conference center.

Haswell Properties LLC submitted plans for the $7.5 million, 40,000-square-foot Artefacto showroom at 97 South Dixie Highway. The two-story building would have parking on the rooftop.

The current development wave in the City Beautiful is adding at least 40 commercial and residential projects, 2,700 residential units, 1.5 million square feet of office space and 740 new hotel rooms.