An Aloft hotel opened last week in a building planned as a condo that was lost in the last boom, the Miami Herald reported.
Once slated as an 88-unit condo tower, the project near Mary Brickell Village stalled during the credit crisis in 2008 and was reborn as a 160-room hotel, with rooms starting around $160 per night.
Venezuelan investor HES Group LLC bought a 50 percent stake in the project in 2010, making it a joint venture with the original builder, Sunview Companies, the Herald said. The Brickell property was developed by Starwood Hotels of the W and St. Regis.
“We are feeling very confident because Brickell is doing so well, and I’m confident that we are going to do very, very well in the near future,” general manager Humberto Fermo, chief operating officer of HES Management and Services, told the Herald.
HES Group is planning to open a second South Florida Aloft hotel in Miami Beach next year, the newspaper reported. The brand launched in 2008 and has 70 hotels worldwide. [Miami Herald] — Emily Schmall