In the conversion club
Ian Schrager's hip Miami Beach
building joins hotel-condo trend.
By Robyn A. Friedman
Special Correspondent
Posted February 26 2005
Hip hotelier Ian Schrager, who won international acclaim in the late
1970s for co-founding the legendary Studio 54 in New York City,
Friday announced plans to convert The Shore Club in Miami Beach, to
a hotel-condominium.
Prices for the 240 units will range from the $400,000s to $20
million, some of the highest prices ever asked for hotel-condominium
units in South Florida.
"I am very passionate about the hotel-condominium concept," said
Schrager. "I like the idea of blurring the distinction between
hotels and residential, taking the best from each. There's something
sexy in giving people the opportunity to own within one of these
lifestyle hotels."
Sales of units will begin in March. There will be no usage
restrictions, so owners can use the units as much as they want,
Schrager said. Owners also have the option to place their units into
the hotel's rental program.
The hotel is at 1901 Collins Ave. in Miami Beach. Unit owners will
have access to all hotel services, including the restaurants, bars,
fitness center, personal trainers, meeting rooms, business center,
beach concession services, room service, catering and even
pet-walking and -sitting services. They will also receive perks at
the neighboring Delano Hotel, which is owned by New York-based
Morgans Hotel Group LLC, Schrager's firm, and VIP treatment at all
hotels, bars and restaurants in the Morgans Hotel chain.
Amenities at The Shore Club include Nobu, a cutting-edge Japanese
restaurant owned by Nobu Matsuhisaand Robert DeNiro, as well as Ago,
a Tuscan restaurant by Agostino Sciandri. The hotel is also home to
the popular Skybar.
"We're selling a lifestyle and that's what distinguishes us from
everybody else," Schrager said. "It's really an opportunity for
people to have a second home on the beach and be a part of the kind
of lifestyle that I have spent the last 20 years cultivating."
Schrager is pouring more than $20 million into the hotel to renovate
and reconfigure the rooms, each of which will contain a kitchen. He
is developing the project under the name Philips South Beach LLC.
Occupancy is expected in the fall of 2006.
The units at The Shore Club will include one and two bedrooms as
well as penthouses, one of which is more than 2,400 square feet,
with three stories, a 3,000-square-foot terrace, a private lap pool
and 360-degree views.
Schrager expects sales to be brisk. He has been quietly accumulating
names on a waiting list and plans to give "our most loyal customers
and friends" dibs on the units. He's already fielded several
inquiries about the $20 million penthouse unit.
At least one industry expert expects the project to do well. "The
biggest draw in the market right now when it comes to condos and
condo-hotels is branding," said Mark Zilbert, a real estate agent
with Esslinger-Wooten-Maxwell Inc. in Miami Beach. "The Shore Club
will do well because it's a highly branded hotel with a well-known
name. People will buy there just to say they live there, and they'll
pay top dollar."
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