The Bahia Mar renovation/expansion project has been in the news for quite a while now. According to the developers, it has the potential to be the largest project on city owned land...but would greatly improve the area that is also home to the Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show. LXR Luxury Resorts is the developer and the plans call for tearing down a four story hotel and replacing it along with building a 22-story Waldorf-Astoria 300 room hotel. But wait...there's more! The 15-story Bahia Mar Hotel would get a face lift and two new 22-story condo towers would be built. Wow. That's a lot to pack into this space. With the proposal, LXR (which already leases the land from the city) wants to extend its lease another 99 years.

The project would definitely spruce up that area which has been looking a bit old lately. The $500 million project still has to be approved by city commissioners. The big question is if they feel it would be 'too much' development in that area and will it really benefit the community. My personal opinion? I think the hotel part of the proposal is a 'no-brainer'. That area needs some freshening up and would do a great business during our tourist season. Some of you might be saying..."Another upscale hotel??"...why not? Once the economy picks up...Ft. Lauderdale would be poised to gain lots of tourists looking for that level of service. The only problem is that there is less and less of a 'middle-ground'. You have the new properties that are high-end and very expensive...but not many middle-priced newer resorts. The middle-priced resorts tend to be the older properties and look it.



The piece of the pie that might be a hard sell is the condo towers. South Florida is suffering from condo overload and many people are still bitter over condos. The one thing going for this project is location. In a few years...they will be full...which would be when they should be finishing up construction. Another item that might help the developers is the plan to share the revenue with the city. The condo's would be set up with 'land leases' for 99 years. Here is an example of how it would work- Let's say that the buyer agrees to pay $2 million for a specific unit on a 99-year lease...which the city would get 4.25 percent of that amount (or $85,000). With that deal, the buyer would pay a ground lease payment directly to the city every year for 99 years. (This sounds an awful lot like the condo sales in the 70's. )

This project would give the annual boat show a permanent residence as well as a grassy park on top of a parking structure making it a little more attractive in a few different ways. If approved, it would fit in with other recently approved/completed projects at Bahia Mar. The marina at Bahia Mar recently got a $19 million makeover and back in January, the city approved 'Beachwalk', two three-story buildings to house offices and restaurants.