MIAMI BEACH, FL-Soho House Limited has topped off its $33 million renovation to a local hotel site that will be known as Soho Beach House when it opens in early 2010. The UK-based private members' club and hotel operator purchased the hotel that was formerly located on the property for $39 million in November 2008 while it was undergoing renovations. The developer was not available for comment by deadline.

The former Sovereign Hotel was purchased from New York-based Ryder Properties and will be relaunched as Soho Beach House with 120 rooms, a rooftop bar, pool, cabanas, spa and a movie-screening room. Major renovations include the addition of a 15-story tower, which construction manager, Fort Lauderdale-based Moss & Associates, topped out this week. "The capacity of the beach is increasing, which is a good thing for this project," hotel consultant Guy Trusty, president of Lodging and Hospitality Realty, told the Daily Business Review, an Incisive Media publication based in Miami, last November. "And they might be opening at the right time, as 2010 will probably be past the current period of [economic] uncertainty."

According to a press release by Withers Bergman LLP, which acted as counsel to Soho House Limited in the acquisition of the property last year, a NYC-based corporate financing firm owns half the project. However, Soho House Beach House LLC is the ultimate tenant of the property and will operate the property formerly known as the Sovereign Hotel and the newly constructed tower as a single club/hotel.

The project sits on Collins Avenue, adjacent to the recently reopened 1,500-room Fontainebleau Miami Beach resort, which completed a $500 million renovation in 2008. Early reports by GlobeSt.com indicate that the tenant was originally planning to house 67 condominiums in the 15-story tower.