Broward may buy back land lease for $30 million

Broward County may pay about $30 million to repurchase a land lease for the Portside Yachting Center, a complex of stores and offices near the county’s convention center in Fort Lauderdale.

The county wants to demolish the 18-year-old Portside complex, formerly known as Northport Marketplace, on Southeast 17 Street at Eisenhower Boulevard.

Demolition would clear the 3.9-acre site for a transit center, part of a pending expansion of the Broward County Convention Center and a possible hotel development nearby.

A series of retailers and restaurant owners have tried operating at the Portside location and have left. The property has been for sale at least twice. It once was home to a link in the old Planet Hollywood chain of cinema-flavored restaurants.

When the county leased the land at the Portside location in 1987, it intended to spur development  hotel rooms near the convention center, which have not materialized despite multiple efforts.

County commissioners last month gave initial approval to paying $30.3 million to buy the lease to its land at Portside. A final vote could happen in autumn.

Investors Mark Ellert and Steven Hudson own the land lease, which expires in 76 years. [Sun-Sentinel] — Mike Seemuth