Blue Road buys another boutique South Beach property for $12M

Gemini Real Estate Advisors sold a boutique South Beach hotel to an affiliate of Blue Road for $11.69 million, records show. 

Blue Road is adding to its portfolio of boutique properties with the purchase of Hotel 18, a two-story, 44-room hotel at 1775 James Avenue. Built in 1948, the property was renovated in 2005 and comes with approved plans to add up to 69 hotel rooms, according to a Loopnet listing.

Records show the Gemini entity, 1775 James Avenue LLC, paid $12.9 million for the 15,557-square-foot property in late 2014, which means it sold at a loss.

Hotel 18 currently has studios and one-bedrooms averaging 310 square feet with kitchens. The building wraps around a central courtyard.

Blue Road, led by Argentinian natives and principals Jorge Savloff and Marcelo Tenenbaum, has been picking up properties in the area. In September, Blue Road added its 10th property with the acquisition of The Crest at 1670 James Avenue for $24 million. It’s back-to-back with Blue Road’s Greenview Hotel at 1671 Washington Avenue.

The hotel owner and operator is also developing the Highlands, a condo project in North Miami Beach, and the Palms in Bay Harbor Islands.

Gemini, based in Huntersville, North Carolina, owns a portfolio of shopping centers, hotels and other investment properties valued at about $700 million, according to the company. Earlier this month, a judge dismissed some of the claims filed against Gemini’s president and vice president over claims of infringement, fraud and more, according to a press release about the suit.