Sonder inks lease for flagship Wynwood hotel

The hospitality market in Wynwood is heating up.

Sonder, a San Francisco-based startup that leases apartments and rents them out on a short-term basis, signed a lease for a new hotel development near the Wynwood Walls, The Real Deal has learned.

The short-term rental operator will manage the 72-key project at 111 Northwest 26th Street in the artsy Miami neighborhood. Andres Klein, founder and principal of BH Investment Group; New York developer Andres Hogg of Hogg Holdings; and Wynwood investor and former gallery owner Eduardo Vargas are developing the hotel, called One Eleven Wynwood Hotel by Sonder.

The announcement comes a week after Domio said it was taking over the residential component of the Related Group and Block Capital Group’s 175-unit project at 51 Northwest 26th Street, also in Wynwood. Sonder was among the short-term rental operators that was interested in leasing that property.

Earlier this year, Sonder reached unicorn status when it closed on a $210 million funding round that valued the startup at $1 billion. Investors in the company include Fidelity, the Pritzker family through Tao Capital Partners, Alex Rodriguez’s A-Rod Corp. and Valor Equity Partners.

In Miami, Sonder leases units in the Grove 27 apartment building in Coconut Grove; at 250 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach;  at Icon Brickell; at 568 Northeast 66th Street in the MiMo District; and at an existing apartment building at 2601 Northwest First Avenue in Wynwood, according to its website and property records.

Sam Artmann, general manager of Sonder in Miami, said in a release that One Eleven Wynwood will be its flagship property in the Miami market.

The developers plan to break ground on the five-story building early next year. It’s expected to open in the summer of 2021, according to the release.

Each of the 72 rooms will have kitchenettes, and the building will also feature a 6,000-square-foot rooftop pool and dining area, and over 6,000 square feet of ground floor retail space for three to four commercial tenants, including food and beverage operators.

The developers first filed plans for the project last year, without an operator. As part of the Home4Home program, the partnership will donate 72 transitional homes for people living in extreme poverty in Latin America.

DDS Construction will lead construction management, and the project architects are RDR architects with Alain Bartroli Architecture.

Domio will be the first short-term rental/hotel concept to open in Wynwood. A Moxy by Marriott, developed by DolphinBay Hospitality, is also expected to break ground next year.