$31M Hotel Trade Fuels Residential Towers Plan

RIVIERA BEACH, FL-Catalfumo Construction and Development Inc., a Palm Beach Gardens-based developer and general contractor, has paid $30.5 million for a Days Inn hotel here that it plans to demolish to make room for two 25-story residential towers.Ocean Land Investments, a South Florida investment and development group based in Boca Raton, has been working on the concept for the luxury condo development for five years. The company sold the nine-acre property to Catalfumo but retained minority participation in the project, says Jean Francois Roy, one of the founders of Ocean Land Investments. The property is located at 2700 Ocean Blvd. on Singer Island.Ocean Land Investments bought the property in 1999 for $5.8 million, with $4.5 million financed, and has been operating the hotel since then. However, Catalfumo plans to demolish the building, with 165 guest rooms, in the fall and develop two oceanfront towers with about 242 units combined. Of those, 142 are planned to be condos and 100 units are slated to be in the condo-hotel. A hotel brand was not yet established.”The reason we sold it is because Catalfumo finalized the zoning entitlement to do the towers,” Roy says, and Ocean Land Investments typically teams up with developers on projects once zoning has been changed. “That is what we do.” The process usually takes five to 10 years, he adds.The City of Riviera Beach chose Ocean Land Investments to redevelop the land. “We have been working on a concept to develop a luxury condominium for the past five years and have been anticipating the area’s maturity,” Pierre Martin, co-founder and vice president of Ocean Land Investments, adds in a statement. “With Catalfumo on board, we are eager to see that the project become the cornerstone of this growing community.”The developers plan to break ground on the project in 2005 and the project will take two to three years to complete, Roy says.