Miami Beach, which is a hot spot for tourists, is evidently an attractive proposition for real estate investors as well.
Investors in Miami are venturing into the hospitality business. With beach front properties at a premium, the savvy investors are taking the route of acquisitions and makeovers. The resort city, as it is called, is a hub for hotels, restaurants, bars and clubs. This sees a steady influx of tourists and money which in turn is increasing hotel occupancy rates.
"This year through September, the average hotel occupancy rate reached 75.9 percent in Miami Beach, a 12-year high," said Jan Freitag, senior vice president at STR, a hospitality research business, to The New York Times.
Miami Beach has always been associated with glamour and is patented as one of the best tourist spots in the world. Proof: Demand for hotel rooms and the way the beach city is undergoing makeovers in the confined provision of hotel properties. In June, a 140-room SLS Hotel South Beach was inaugurated in the area of the former Ritz Plaza.
"They don't make any more beach, and there is a limited number of projects available, so that is creating pent-up demand," NYT quoted Christian Charre, president and chief executive of the Charre Group, a Miami company that deals exclusively in hotels, as saying.
According to The New York Times report, the old Royal Palm at 1545 Collins Av., has been renovated and is reopening as the James Royal Palm Hotel and will be operated by the Denihan Hospitality Group of New York. Demand for hotel rooms, dining and entertainment is sufficient to support more hotel renovation and expansion projects in Miami Beach, Sam Bakhshandehpour, president of SBE, which owns SLS Hotels told New York Times.
Recession did cramp the tourism industry for a brief while in Miami. "Hotels in Miami Beach are beginning to bounce back after a pause in the recession, and would appreciate in value as other sectors of the economy gained strength," added Bakhshandehpour. "From a timing perspective, we're still on the cusp of economic growth," he said.
