Correction: Rüger Holding to Convert Historic Miami Beach Rental into Hotel
By Julia Echikson February 21, 2023 5:20 pm
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A German investor wants to convert a historic apartment building in Miami Beach into a boutique hotel, according to a filing with the city’s Historic Preservation Board.
The Mediterranean Revival-style building, located a block south of the Bass Museum at 337 20th Street, was constructed in 1926 and today functions as a 56-unit rental property. Rüger Holding KG is seeking approvals to turn the 34,979-square-foot building into a 76-room hotel, eight years after paying $11.8 million for it.
The proposed plans will keep much of the three-story building’s exterior and interior, retaining “at least 75 percent of the front and street wide walls” and “at least 66 percent of the remaining interior side walls,” complying with the district’s historic redevelopment regulations, according to Rüger Holding’s lawyer Michael Larkin.
The rooftop will contain a deck, which will include a pool and garden.
As South Florida’s tourism industry has rebounded following COVID-19 induced lockdowns, investors have seized on hospitality properties.
Earlier this month, Blue Suede Hospitality Group paid $26.5 million for another historic Miami Beach hotel, the 79-room South Beach Plaza Hotel. In a blockbuster deal, Trinity Investments and Credit Suisse Asset Management bought the 1,000-room Diplomat Beach Resort for $835 million, making it South Florida’s largest hospitality acquisition since 2019.
The Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board will hear the bid March 14.
Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that the owner of the property is Rüger Holding KG, not Intervest Properties, as previously stated. Property records indicated that Intervest Properties owned the property. But after a lawyer for Rüger Holding alerted Commercial Observer that the German investor owned the property, the story was amended.
