Singh Investors has paid $24.5 million for a 24-acre oceanfront development site on Knights Key in Marathon, where it plans to build one of the largest resorts in the Florida Keys.
The property, at 1 Knights Key Boulevard in Marathon, is currently occupied by Knights Key RV Resort & Marina.
Noah Singh, vice president of Singh Investors, told The Real Deal that the purchase, completed on Thursday, involves two parcels totaling 24.5 million. He said the company will be spending more than $75 million to develop a 199-unit resort.
A rendering of the resort
Singh said the family-owned development firm, led by his father Pritam Singh, is targeting the end of the second quarter or the beginning of the third quarter of 2016 for the start of construction.
CBRE Hotels’ Vice President Lisa Zaramek and Vice President Paul Weimer arranged the sale. CBRE’s Christian Charre and Natalie Castillo with CBRE Hotels, along with Calum Weaver, Gerard Yetming and Robert Given of CBRE’s South Florida Multi-Housing Group, also collaborated in arranging the transaction.
As TRD has reported, Singh Investors plans to build a 199-unit, luxury resort with 148 oceanfront units, 51 units with garden or pool views, a 24-slip marina, beachside restaurant, fitness center, and landscaped central plaza.
Located at the entrance to the Seven Mile Bridge, the property occupies a peninsula with 2,500 feet of shoreline.
“It’s a particularly green site plan because of all the land we have,” Singh previously told TRD. “It will probably be the most spectacular we’ve done.”
In late summer, the Marathon City Council gave site plan approval to the oceanfront project, currently called Knight’s Key Resort & Marina.
Singh Investors already has 13 major projects in the Keys include the Truman Annex neighborhood in Old Town Key West; Hawks Cay Resort on Duck Key, north of Marathon; and Indigo Reef and Tranquility Bay Resort in Marathon.
The Knights Key property, located near mile marker 47, was sold by Plano, Texas-based CXA-10 Corp., which is controlled by various lenders who acquired the property through a foreclosure. CXA obtained the property in 2013, Monroe County record show.
The project had generated outcries in Marathon from people who don’t want to see the existing RV resort torn down. Singh said the RVs will be left intact through this summer. In addition, he said, Singh Investors is working with the Pigeon Key Foundation to find a suitable new location for the nonprofit’s visitor center, which sits on the Knights Key property. The foundation runs ferries to nearby Pigeon Key, an historic five-acre island that more than a century ago housed workers on Henry Flagler’s Overseas Railroad.
Along with the 199 hotels rooms, Singh Investors plans to build 30 affordable units on Knights Key site.