HFF marketed the oceanfront site on behalf of Fortune International and the Ireland family/Fairwinds--which have retained a partnership interest in the new venture and will be involved in the eventual development of the site--pursuant to an agreement with an existing lender.

In 2008, the partnership which owned the site, located about four miles northeast of downtown Fort Lauderdale, got tentative approval to develop Fairwinds on the Ocean, a five-star complex with an 165-room hotel and 128 condominiums. In 2006, the partnership had reportedly been negotiating with the Ritz Carlton and the Mandarin Oriental.

The site, which today is entitled for the development of up to 622,178 square feet of residential, hotel and retail uses, according to HFF, has beachfront access because it is on the east side of AIA, the road closest to the ocean. Most of the hotels in the area are on the west side of the beach.

Today, the property, where Ireland's Inn Beachfront Resort once operated, is fenced in and vacant. At the resort complex, several buildings had been torn down because of damage from Hurricane Wilma in 2005, and the entire complex has been closed for several years.

Development on Fort Lauderdale beach has stalled as it has all over South Florida. In March, a mortgage holder filed to take back the 298-unit Trump International Hotel & Tower, also on Fort Lauderdale beach, according to an April 4, 2010 article in the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.