1 Hotel South Beach proposes beach club and restaurant

The owners of 1 Hotel South Beach want to build a tiki hut-style club and restaurant on the sand behind the property’s parking garage.

Tuesday afternoon, representatives for 1 Hotel made the case for the new structure in front of the Miami Beach Planning Board, which voted to recommend approving modifications to the developer’s conditional use permit.

“We have bare sand …. This no man’s land that sits in front of the three-story parking garage,” said Carter McDowell, an attorney for 1 Hotel. “The creation of a new beach club is to enliven that space.”

To win support from neighboring properties such as the Roney Plaza and the Riviera Hotel South Beach, 1 Hotel’s proposed beach club would only be open until 8 p.m. and music will be maintained at levels where normal conversations can still be heard.  

Illeana Estevez, Riviera’s property manager, asked the board to add some conditions such as moving the valet drop-off further east to prevent traffic congestion for guests and condo owners of her building. “It should be at the end of their street to avoid commotion,” she said.

Estevez also asked that speakers in the beach club face the ocean and not the Riviera property.

McDowell said the Beach Club will not require major construction. “It’s mostly berms and landscaped wood decks up to the building,” he said. “The bathrooms will be built inside the garage.”

The LEED-certified hotel and condo tower opened last year as part of a joint venture between the LeFrak Organization and Barry Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group. Located at 2341 Collins Avenue, 1 Hotel is the site of the former Gansevoort Hotel, which also operated as the Perry South Beach.

Earlier this year, The Real Deal reported that the owners are looking to sell the 426-key hotel and that Atlanta-based hotel real estate firm Hodges Ward Elliott is handling the listing.