Developer breaks ground for Cambria hotel at Fort Lauderdale beach

A locally based developer broke ground Thursday for construction of a 104-room Cambria hotel in the north beach area of Fort Lauderdale.

Fort Lauderdale-based Hotel Motel Inc., owned by Jai Motwani, expects to complete construction of the Cambria Hotel Fort Lauderdale Beach next year.

The development site of the hotel at 2231 North Ocean Boulevard is across the street from a public beach.

It will be the second Cambria hotel in Fort Lauderdale. The owner of the brand, Choice Hotels International Inc., also franchised the Cambria Hotel Fort Lauderdale Airport South & Cruise Port.

More than 40 Cambria hotels have opened across the country, and more are expected to open this year in markets including Boston, Houston, and Anaheim and Napa, California.

South Florida hotels reported lower first-quarter occupancy rates, as thousands of new rooms hit the market, according to hospitality industry monitor STR.

The first-quarter hotel occupancy rate in Broward County was 83.5 percent, down less than a percentage point from last year.

STR data for Broward also show that the average daily room rate in the first quarter fell 5.1 percent to $156.27 as revenue per available room fell 4.4 percent to $187.09. – Mike Seemuth