In a major redevelopment move, investors plan an upscale spa for the former site of a homeless shelter just north of downtown Hollywood.
Aventura-based investor Yevgen Yatsenko leads a group that expects to acquire the city-owned vacant half-acre of land for $1.8 million in early October, according to a contract that city staff negotiated with Yatsenko and city commissioners approved.
The investor group will then convert the former site of the shelter to a chic retreat. A rendering that Yatsenko submitted to city staff shows a “high-end” spa building spanning 5,000 square feet, with on-site parking and an outdoor swimming pool and Jacuzzi-style tub. Yatsenko declined a request for comment.
“I think it will be a great addition to Federal Highway that will leverage what’s happening down the street at Young Circle and downtown,” said Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy, referring to redevelopment near the downtown traffic circle where Hollywood Boulevard and Federal Highway intersect.
At a city commission meeting last week, the mayor and commissioners unanimously authorized city staff to execute an amended version of the $1.8 million purchase and sale contract with Yatsenko for the North Federal Highway site.
The amendment, proposed by commissioner Caryl Shuham, requires Yatsenko to complete construction of the upscale spa within 18 months of winning site plan approval of the project.
“We’re anxious to get something there,” she said. “We want a top quality project there.”
The pending sale of the site at 1203 North Federal Highway could be the beginning of the end of a multi-year effort by Hollywood to induce redevelopment of the former homeless shelter site.
The city acquired the property in April 2015 for $1.7 million, according to county property records, then demolished the shelter building later the same year. The seller was the non-profit operator of the shelter, COSAC Homeless Assistance Center, led by Sean Cononie.
The chief challenge in remarketing the property is the small size of the site, which precludes intense development unless it is part of a larger assemblage of adjacent properties.
Among other efforts to get the property redeveloped, the city solicited bids in 2015 through a formal RFP, or request for proposals, but determined that the proposals were inadequate, said Shiv Newaldass, Hollywood’s director of development services.
City staff also struggled to sell the property without a request for proposals. “We’ve had offers that were contingent upon partnerships and approvals that we didn’t think were realistic,” he said.
“Assemblage is the only thing that would allow for an intense development, a 10-story building,” Newaldass said at the commission meeting last Wednesday.
According to a timeline of events that Newaldass showed to the commissioners, Yatsenko started bidding for the former homeless shelter site with a $950,000 offer in April of last year. Then in May of this year, he raised his bid to $1.3 million, before offering $1.8 million in August.