"Absolutely," Melanie Muss, Fontainebleau vice president of development and daughter of the hotel's owner Stephen Muss, tells GlobeSt.com. "It puts us in a different range of attracting convention business. We're looking to be able to commit over 1,000 rooms to attract national conventions."
Some site work already has begun on the planned project at the south end of the 18-acre resort in the heart of Miami Beach. "We're still working on the phasing now," Muss says.
The planned Tower Residences at the Fontainebleau would consist of 232 individually owned two-bedroom suites that owners could register as part of a hotel rental program, Muss says. Each furnished suite would come with two keys, which allows the owner and hotel to rent as two separate units. Prices would range from $250,000 to more than $1 million each.
"They do have an opportunity to put it back into a hotel program," Muss says. "So there is flexibility." The project builds on the wherewithal of two major influences on the South Florida real estate market--Stephen Muss and Don Soffer, managing partner of Turnberry Associates and developer of projects such as the Aventura Mall and Turnberry Isle Resort & Club. Melanie Muss will be involved in the development along with Jeffrey Soffer, the son of Don Soffer.
"It's great synergy and combination of talent," Sheldon Greene, a South Florida hotel industry consultant, tells GlobeSt.com. "Soffer has had nothing but success in everything he has touched. And the Fontainebleau is enjoying tremendous success."
The deal has so much value, Greene says, considering the impact on the local meetings and convention market and the investment opportunity for individual condo buyers. "It could turn out to be one super investment for the condo owners," Greene says. "It's a situation where all the parties benefit."
The project is one several upscale hotel developments presently under construction or in planning, Kevin Crowder, director of the Miami Beach Economic Development Division, tells GlobeSt.com. Other nearby hotel projects include the Ritz-Carlton, Ritz-Plaza, Shore Club, Sentai Hotel and several other hospitality industry renovation projects.
"We've got this incredible collection of four- and five-star hotels coming on line," Crowder says. "Throughout the city, we're moving more into having this high-end hotel product. Miami Beach, and Miami in general, has not had a critical mass of luxury inventory to support those markets."
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