March 06–Soon there will be more places for tourists and residents to hang out in North Beach Village.
Next month, North Beach Hotel at 551 Breakers Ave. is slated to open with 17 rooms and a 200-seat restaurant after undergoing months of renovations and upgrades.
The boutique Breakers Avenue hotel will become the flagship property for Fort Lauderdale-based hotel operator North Beach Village Resort, said Harry Rozelle, a local resident who’s helping to market the village.
“We want it to be the ground zero and the epicenter of North Beach Village,” Rozelle said.
An investment group led by Swedish developer Par Sanda is the primary force behind the redevelopment of the area, nestled between the W Hotel and the Bonnet House on the barrier island south of Sunrise Boulevard
Sanda’s outfit has bought more than 35 buildings and lots in the area and invested more than $80 million remodeling and redeveloping them into the European-style village that’s now taking shape.
The company’s North Beach Village Resort collection of more than 17 properties offers a range of lodgings for families and singles as well LGBT travelers. Properties include Aqua on Viramar Street, Beach Gardens on Orton Avenue, Royal Palms and Robindale Suites on Breakers Avenue, and Cocobelle Resort and Tranquilo on Vistamar Street.
By mid-April, the first phase of the new Flow Hotel at Bayshore Drive and Birch Road also is set to open. When complete, the 100-room, three-building hotel will mark the transformation of the former Martindale, Sandy Shores and Seaside motels, now in progress.
The wing opening next month will have 25 rooms and will cater to a family market, said Christine Sposa, vice president of operations at North Beach Village Hotel Properties, which overseas resort operations. .
On April 26, another company property — the 31-room ‘male only’ gay Retro Schubert Hotel at 855 N.E. 20th Ave., — will close for renovations and reopen May 23 as the family-friendly Victoria Park Hotel.
“We’re seeing more people out and about than before, and there are more amenities and more entertainment to come,” said Sposa, adding that the redevelopment is helping to revitalize and breathe new life into the community.
The resort group’s outdoor Plaza Bistro restaurant on Breakers Avenue recently started serving breakfast in addition to lunch and dinner, and in December it opened a centralized gift shop at its Tropirock Hotel on Belmar Street, Sposa said. Plans also are afoot for a centrally located fitness center at 519 Birch Road for all guests to enjoy.
“North Beach Village will become more and more like a place where visitors and residents won’t need to leave for anything,” Sposa said.
asatchell@tribune.com, 954-356-4029 or Twitter@TheSatchreport.
