Investor Plans to Renovate Miami Beach Hotels Designed by Roy France
By Julia Echikson November 29, 2023 6:50 pm
reprints
The historic Bellamar and Viking Hotel in Miami Beach could get a makeover.
Private investor Richard D Cohen Lancry filed a plan to renovate the three-building complex that includes both hotels and a utility building situated between them. The low-rise property, completed in the late 1930s and designed by Roy France and GL McCann, spans 11,790 square feet at 220 and 230 31st Street, west of the oceanfront Palms Hotel & Spa.
Lancry, who’s based in Sunny Isles Beach, wants to tear down the one-story utility structure in the middle of the 12,000-square-foot site and replace it with a courtyard that will include a pool deck and dining area. Plans also call for the two hotels to have 46 rooms — six fewer than the current number — as well as a front lobby and a “modest” restaurant and bar.
The investor acquired the property for $8.4 million last year, according to property records.
The Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board is scheduled to hear the proposal Dec. 12. Lancry’s lawyer, Michael Larkin of Bercow Radell Fernandez Larkin & Tapanes, did not respond to a request for comment.
Other properties nearby are also set to get revamped. Last week, a Winter Park-based investor paid $27 million for a historic residential building five blocks south from Lancry’s property, with plans to redevelop it into a boutique hotel.
Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.
