OTO Development, a real estate company based in South Carolina, is under contract to buy the land needed for Fort Lauderdale’s first AC Hotel.
The developer said it is picking up three joined parcels along Alhambra Street in Fort Lauderdale Beach for the hotel. Their addresses are 3017, 3021 and 3029 Alhambra Street, and together they form just less than three quarters of an acre.
The project is headed for its final approval phase on Nov. 3, when city commissioners will take a vote. Plans include a 10-story building with 175 rooms designed by architecture firm GarciaStromberg. Other features will include a tapas-style restaurant and an elevated pool deck that overlooks the ocean.
AC Hotels by Marriott is an upscale brand from Marriott International, which focuses on business travelers and is generally “select service,” meaning it cuts out amenities like room service or banquet facilities. The brand first launched in Europe and recently transitioned to the U.S., including two locations in South Florida.
Dan Teixeira of Douglas Elliman
“We wanted to bring an upscale but very price sensitive product to Fort Lauderdale beach,” Dan Teixira, a Douglas Elliman agent that represented OTO for the acquisition, told The Real Deal. “There’s a niche that’s not there.”
Teixeira said that OTO is paying “in the neighborhood” of the $9 million asking price for all three properties.
He first got involved in the project as the listing agent for 3029 Alhambra Street, a 12,500-square-foot patch of empty land that was once eyed for a Vintro Hotel location.
Worried that the 13-story Vintro was too big for its lot, city commissioners denied the project, the Sun Sentinel reported in 2013. Teixeira told TRD that his client, which originally paid $1.8 million for the land in 2013, decided to sell. The property officially hit the market in January.
Teixeira, knowing the original plans for a hotel on the lot, said he decided to solicit several other owners on the block as well as a developer in hopes of kickstarting a project.
“I was at every city commission meeting and planning and zoning meeting for the Vintro,” he said. “I heard the mayor and the city commissioners loud and clear. They want a quality development with an abundance of land with proper setbacks.”
He said he got the owners on board for both 3017 Alhambra Street, a small rental apartment building known as Villa Torino, and 3021 Alhambra Street, a low-rise hotel called the Alhambra Beach Resort.
Property records show the hotel owners, TC Ventures LLC, paid $1.65 million for the property in 2004. And at Villa Torino, the last recorded sale in 2002 was for $635,000 to the James P Ostryniec Revocable Trust. Combined, the three properties last sold for $4.09 million.
Construction of the AC Hotel, should it get its approvals, would begin in early 2016, Teixeira said. It would take about 18 months to build.