Lincoln Road, the most expensive retail strip in South Florida, could be getting hotels

October 11, 2019

Commissioners of Miami Beach will consider final approval of an ordinance to allow hotels on the north side of Lincoln Road, between Drexel Avenue and Lenox Avenue, on October 16. Sterling Building, the owner of 927 Lincoln Road, submitted the application that could be applied to many other properties in that area.

Any site with at least 30,000 square feet could become a hotel with more than 100 units. The maximum height should be 75 feet, and the hotel towers need to be set back at least 75 feet from Lincoln Road and another 25 feet, or more, from any side streets.

In exchange for the privilege of building a hotel, the city wants developers to provide a public benefit either by dedicating 500 square feet in the building to a public display of art, organized by a local nonprofit, or pay 1.5% of the development cost into a fund for public art displays on Lincoln Road.

Nothing would change from the outside, as all the historic facades would remain while the hotels are developed behind them, according to Bilzin Sumberg attorney Anthony de Yurre, who represents a property owner in the potential hotel zone.

“This is a well-managed zoning modification to allow for a boutique product in a special place, and it has very specific zoning controls,” de Yurre said. “It promotes the retention of historic buildings by allowing you to add height to existing buildings.”

As far as hotels proposed to the area, there are two waiting for this ordinance to pass. One is a 140-room hotel by Sterling Building, led by Sam Herzberg, with a design by Kobi Karp. The second is a 134-room hotel at 690 Lincoln Road, by Lincoln Center Associates, led by Mel Schlesser.

“You are putting shoppers right at their doorstep and creating a push away from the traditional model with shopping in one area of town and office or residential in another area,” said Lyle Stern, the president of commercial brokerage Koniver Stern Group and a member of the Lincoln Road Business Improvement District (BID). “For the hotels, Lincoln Road as a shopping and entertainment destination is the ideal amenity to market to guests.”

City staff assumed that this change would allow for 500 to 1,000 hotel rooms to be developed in the area. Even with a 700-room hotel planned at the Miami Beach Convention Center, the staff believed there is still plenty of demand for more units. Rates of hotels at Lincoln Road would likely be competitive with rates at beachfront hotels.

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