Sept. 20–FORT LAUDERDALE — The historic Escape Hotel, a once-popular tourist oasis, is set for a comeback more than 30 years after it welcomed its last guest.
Commissioners tentatively have approved plans to restore the hotel and build a 12-story condominium on a vacant portion of the 2.7-acre property. A final vote is expected Oct. 1
In a turn of events that may be as historic as the hotel itself, the condominium tower has met surprisingly little resistance from its future beach neighbors, who have accepted it as a necessary tradeoff to preserve the Escape.
“It’s like the poster-child for development and historic preservation coming together,” said beach resident Steve Glassman, who is also the vice president of the Broward Trust for Historic Preservation.
City records show the Escape opened its doors in 1951, the first hotel on the beach with a pool. It became the first to open year-round and its bar and lounge was a popular gathering spot. It also had tennis courts and a nine-hole pitch-and-putt golf course.
It was the first hotel developed by Bob Gill Jr., who went on to build the Jolly Roger, Yankee Clipper and Yankee Trader on the beach. It turned into the Tiffany House adult living facility in 1980 and has been vacant and deteriorating for more than a decade. Its last owner gutted its buildings but couldn’t get financing to turn the complex into condominiums.
“Restoring the original use in my opinion was as important, if not more important, than just preserving the existing structure,” said Dev Motwani, managing partner of the Tiffany House LLC development group that worked with nearby residents for months before presenting the current plans to city officials.
In exchange for restoring the 96-room hotel, developers are being given permission to construct the 72-unit condominium and retail building on the southern end of the trapezoid-shaped block, bounded by Bayshore Drive, Riomar Street and Birch Road.
“The historic structure covers 60 percent of our site,” Motwani said. “We had to put the density somewhere.”
The Central Beach Alliance, representing area homeowner groups, supports the project with the caveat it not be “a precedent for future development,” CBA President John Weaver said. “This project was acceptable because it is self-contained.”
There have been concerns that allowing the tower two blocks in from the beach could be an opening for others to propose high-rises. The area has been having a renaissance of late, with developer Par Sanda buying and renovating a number of mid-century lodgings and branding the community North Beach Village.
lbarszewski@tribune.com or 954-356-4556
