South Florida CEO: Hollywood beach

Hollywood boasts beachside restaurants, shops and a pedestrian walkway, yet the city has struggled to gain traction for redevelopment. The city plans to spend $100 million to improve the beach area, but after years of fits and starts, citizens are asking, "Is it going to happen in our lifetime," according to area activist Audrey Joint. Small, visible improvements, such as new benches and trash receptacles, are on the way, says Richard Lemack, interim Beach Community Redevelopment Area director. But the planned beach re-nourishment scheduled for April is what has residents and city leaders excited. "I can't wait to see our first barge," Lemack says.

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On these two pages, a look at the landmarks and projects re-shaping Hollywood Beach.

THE VILLAS OF POSITANO: The typical buyer for a unit in this eight-story condo and townhouse project is between 40- and 60-years old, says developer Lon Tabatchnick, president of the Lojeta Group. With unit sizes that start at 3,700 square feet and average prices of $400 a square foot, he says, buyers are mostly South Floridians moving out of the western suburbs. Tabatchnick is spending more than $60 million to acquire land and build the project, which he expects to complete in March 2006. This is also the location where the city Broadwalk Improvements will begin.

MARRIOTT HOLLYWOOD BEACH: The first new hotel on the beach under a major international flag, the 229-room resort is set to open in early spring. "This and the Johnson Street property are just the two things that make everything happen, the catalyst to central beach," says Audrey Joint. Delray Beach-based Ocean Properties Ltd. spent $40 million rebuilding what used to be a Howard Johnson, according to attorney Alan Koslow of Fort Lauderdale-based Becker & Poliakoff PA, who represents the company. Koslow says the family-run firm also owns the property across from the Marriott on the Intracoastal Waterway and will build a marina there next.

RUFFY'S MARINA: A New York-based investment group purchased the property late last year and has given the restaurant a facelift. Koslow says the group is lining up financing for a condo-hotel, a new restaurant and a refurbished marina. The same group also purchased two blocks on the Intracoastal Waterway for a boutique condo.

THE JOHNSON STREET SITE: For years, the city has been trying to get a hotel on this five-acre parcel of land it owns. Four proposals under consideration: a Marriott by Ocean Properties; a resort and public swimming pool by Hollywood Grande developers Anthony Provenzano and Fabrizio Passalacqua; and two condo-hotels, including one from the developer that built the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on Hollywood's western border.

HOLLYWOOD GRANDE HOTEL: Structuring this as a condo hotel was an "expeditious means to obtain financing," says developer Fabrizio Passalacqua, who is spending $49 million on land and development. Real estate investors and vacationers from Miami-Dade and Broward counties, as well as New York, Canada and the Midwest, have been buying units.

THE WAVE: The March 2004 condo conversion sold out in four months, says Rosalia Picot, president of Picot and Co. Realty Advisors Inc., which handled sales. At prices averaging $325 a square foot for waterfront, "It brought in second-home buyers that could not have been second-home buyers before," she says, mostly from South Florida. Chicago-based MCZ/Centrum, which purchased the 112-unit property from Charles E. Smith Residential for $97 million, has around 3,000 units under development or proposed throughout Hollywood, says president Michael Lerner. "Hollywood is a natural extension of the beach-front between Miami and Fort Lauderdale," he says.

RAMADA INN HOLLYWOOD BEACH RESORT: A film and entertainment museum planned for the historic hotel's Oceanwalk shopping complex fell through, and redevelopment is stalled until the various owners of the hotel, several of its condo-hotel units, the on-site parking garage and Oceanwalk can negotiate a sale to a single buyer.

OCEAN PALMS: "People who lived in Hollywood and west Broward wanted to stay in Hollywood and Broward County, and there was no place for them to buy oceanfront property," says The Plaza Group president Neil Fairman, who is developing Ocean Palms along with Avatar Development. The 240-condo building, where unit sizes start at 2,115 square feet, is completely sold out. According to a real estate source familiar with the project, prices averaged "in the high $300s" a square foot - 18 months ago. Fairman says half the buyers are from Broward and another 20 percent from Miami-Dade County, and plan to live there full-time. The $225 million (sell-out price) project should take occupancy this fall.

DIPLOMAT OCEAN-FRONT RESIDENCES: These units will average a relatively large 3,000 square feet each. With 90 percent of them under contract, the average selling price was $1 million each, according to Ian Kramer, project manager for developer Taylor Woodrow North America's US Tower division.

WESTIN DIPLOMAT RESORT & SPA: The 1,000-room hotel opened in March 2000, and Picot says it was the catalyst for beach redevelopment. "The Diplomat Hotel was an $890 million infusion in the area--that has ripples throughout," she says. The hotel has established itself in the convention market, says general manager Mark Kukulski. "We draw business that wouldn't have been in South Florida at all," he says. But the hotel has not been as successful drawing a base of family leisure travelers, perhaps because of beach erosion. Nonetheless, says Kukulski, "The hotel is exceeding expectations. I'm speaking financially and market share performance."

DIPLOMAT LANDING: The 52,000-square-foot retail and restaurant complex is 40 percent occupied, says Tony O'Malley, managing director of leasing agent LaSalle Investment Management. South Beach restaurateurs Jack & Lucia Penrod opened Nikki Marina at the complex in February 2004, and O'Malley says he is negotiating with "four prospects that have a hotel-entertainment complex."

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INDIGO BEACH RESORT: MCZ/Centrum is negotiating to buy this property and create a beach club to service its other projects, The Tides and The Wave, says Koslow, who represents the company.

THE TIDES: MCZ/Centrum purchased this 950-unit, three-building apartment property from Charles E. Smith Residential for $160 million, and is selling the 812-square-foot-and-up units for an average of $325 a square foot, says Centrum properties vice president of sales and marketing Jennifer Arons. So far, 550 have been sold, mostly to full-time residents, she says. Another 200 units recently came on the market.

THE AMBASSADOR HOTEL: this eyesore has been vacant for several years, and at least one deal to self it has fallen through because of financing difficulties. Koslow says a client who "is a very significant investor on Hollywood Beach," may buy it. "They have the ability to close."

Vacant lot: Koslow says Miami-based real estate developer Fortune International may purchase the lot and build a condo-hotel on it.