By Susannah Bryan, Sun Sentinel 9:59 p.m. EDT, June 17, 2014 HALLANDALE BEACH— A 21-story luxury condo tower may be coming to The Village at Gulfstream Park, making it the only pari-mutuel casino in South Florida with highrise housing. The owner of the gambling emporium that has transformed Hallandale Beach into a tourist destination hopes to build 182 luxury units atop an existing parking garage. The tower would rise next to the open-air shopping and entertainment mall and overlook a giant 11-story Pegasus statue currently under construction. People will live here and use our shops and restaurants and gaming and everything else we have here, said Dennis Porter, senior vice president of The Stronach Group, Gulfstreams parent company. It brings more people to our facility overall. This is pretty rare. I dont know of another facility that has what we have here. Commissioners will vote on the proposal Wednesday night. If approved, construction would begin this fall and take two years, Porter said. This is the first step in an ambitious plan to bring 1,500 highrise units, a 500-room hotel and a movie theater to The Village at Gulfstream Park. If all goes well, the next condo tower might not be far behind. This is the first of several, Porter said. We dont know how many buildings we would build over the next several years. It depends on how the market reacts to the product and how the economy goes. Once we get this one nailed down and under way, and we have the success we think we will have, we wont be far behind with the second. The condo-casino concept is extremely unusual, said Chad Beynon, vice president and senior analyst for Gaming/Leisure at Macquarie Capital in New York. A hotel casino, such as the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, is more common because you can comp your guests, give them a place to stay if they want to go out to dinner, bet on some horses and place some bets in the casino, Beynon said. You get them to stay more than two hours. But in Gulfstreams case, the owner is taking advantage of a situation where he can make more money on the condo side rather than putting in more stores or parking or a hotel, Beynon said. A condo development would generate a higher financial return at this point. South Florida is one of the strongest regions in the country for condos. The seven other horse tracks, dog tracks and jai-alai frontons with casinos in Broward and Miami-Dade counties have all expressed interest in building a hotel or condo. Still, most are reluctant. Mayor Joy Cooper said the proposed highrise is proof the city is moving beyond recovery mode. They are slated to build 1,500 residential units, Cooper said. This is just the beginning. This is a great step toward what we initially planned, to have people living, working and playing in the same area. More than 120 people have already reserved condos, with studios and one- and two-bedroom units priced from $250,000 to just under $1 million each, Porter said. Still, Gulfstreams plans for a hotel, movie theater and water park are on hold for now, Porter said. They are part of a future phase, but Porter said it was too early to say when they might be rolled out. Staff writer Nick Sortal contributed to this report. sbryan@tribune or 954-356-4554 Copyright © 2014, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted on: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 13:43:03 +0000
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