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Baywood Hotels wins approval for 115-room Element in Dania Beach
Colombia, Maryland-based company has a contract to buy the site from the International Game Fish Association
Baywood Hotels won site plan approval for a six-story, 115-room Element Hotel in Dania Beach near a Bass Pro Shops just west of I-95.
The Dania Beach City Commission voted unanimously Tuesday night to also approve variances from the city’s design requirements for the hotel project and a related plat amendment.
Columbia, Maryland-based Baywood Hotels, led by President Al Patel, has a contract to buy the 1.2-acre development site at 300 Gulfstream Way, according to a letter to city staff from Julian Bobiley, an attorney for Baywood. He did not disclose the contract price.
The owner of the two-parcel site on Gulfstream Way is the International Game Fish Association (IGFA), which last month announced a tri-party deal to sell the north parcel to Baywood Hotels and the south parcel to Springfield, Missouri-based Bass Pro Shops.
In a press release last month, IGFA said the sale of the two parcels would bring a total of $20 million. The association said $15.5 million of the proceeds would add to its endowment fund, and $4.5 million would be used to prepay rent at a future office location.
A building that serves as the headquarters of IGFA now occupies the site at 300 Gulfstream Way. The building also housed the IGFA Fishing Hall of Fame until it relocated in 2015 to a museum and aquarium complex in Bass Pro Shops’ headquarters city of Springfield, Missouri, according to the press release.
The IGFA also said in the release that it opened its headquarters and hall of fame on Gulfstream Way in 1999 “thanks to a generous land donation” by Johnny Morris, founder of Bass Pro Shops and trustee emeritus of IGFA.
Baywood Hotels successfully proposed four variances from code requirements for its Element Hotel development.
The Dania Beach City Commission allowed the hotel’s height to be six stories instead of the standard maximum of five stories. The building closest to the development site is a six-story Courtyard by Marriott. The commission also reduced the required setbacks and the required amount of landscaping in vehicular use areas and on the west side of the property’s perimeter.
The planned hotel, which would rise near Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport, is designed at 85 feet and 6 inches tall, including the height of an architectural feature. But the Broward County Aviation Department determined on Sept. 16 that the planned hotel would not pierce any protected airspace.
In September of last year, Baywood Hotels sold the eight-story, 96-key Hilton Garden Inn Miami Beach for $28 million. A joint venture of Montford Group and Opterra Capital bought the hotel at 2940 Collins Avenue.
Baywood’s other hotels in South Florida include the La Quinta Inn & Suites Miami Airport West/Doral, the Home2 Suites by Hilton / Tru Miami Airport South Blue Lagoon, and the AC Hotel Miami Airport West/Doral.