Hotel boom means more rooms and more variety in Palm Beach County

Looking for a quiet, luxury boutique hotel just two blocks from the ocean in Palm Beach? Or a new tourist hotel with a rooftop bar in downtown Delray Beach. Or just in town for a quick business visit near the airport?

Business and leisure travelers who visit Palm Beach County have a growing number of choices in new hotels that are just coming online, and older ones that have undergone makeovers.

Amid the arrivals of the high speed Brightline train service, a new convention center hotel and the emergence of condo and apartment high rises in downtown West Palm Beach, hotel projects are sprouting in multiple locations around the county.

Currently, more than a dozen projects with nearly 2,000 rooms are under construction. with anticipated completion dates ranging from late this year to 2021, according to Discover The Palm Beaches Florida, the county’s tourism marketing arm.

Meanwhile, the Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach, The Breakers in Palm Beach and The Yacht Club at Boca Raton Resort & Club have all emerged within the past year from multimillion dollar transformations aimed at wooing high end guests.

But a study conducted for the tourism agency says the northern part of the county — particularly Palm Beach Gardens — actually needs 600 more rooms over the next several years because of a jobs boom in the area.

“We’re in an area where there is a significant amount of population growth,” said Jorge Pesquera, President and CEO of Discover The Palm Beaches.

Another factor: out-of-state companies are increasingly locating operations in the county, boosting the numbers of business travelers. The convention and conference business is also on the rise as corporations and industry associations choose to talk strategy and stage presentations at the county’s big resorts.

“There are a lot of corporations based in Boca that bring technology folks to talk about new initiatives,” he said.

Palm Beach County is a strong hotel market, said Rich Lillis, executive director, hotels, USA, for Colliers International, the worldwide real estate services firm.

He sees Boca Raton, where he is based, Delray Beach and West Palm Beach as emerging markets, and Palm Beach Gardens and

Jupiter as “strong sub markets.” While Lillis agrees that business travelers are important contributors, “tourism itself is very, very strong.”

Many of the new hotels are Marriotts and Hiltons offering specialty brands to their long-time customers.

“You see Delray Beach has really emerged as a booming a tourist area,” he said. “The hotels in Delray do very well.”

Overall, Lillis is optimistic about the county’s hotel future because “because the economy seems to be racing along and tourism keeps on growing.” But he said that while revenues and occupancy rates are holding up countywide, “I honestly wonder if all of them will end up materializing.”

Here is an overview of the Palm Beach County projects under construction and their projected openings:

2019

■ Courtyard by Marriott, Delray Beach, 149 rooms, now open: The city’s newest hotel offers The Bistro for breakfast or drinks and dinner. Free Wi-Fi throughout the hotel plus a rooftop pool bar and fitness center.

■ Aloft Hotel, Delray Beach, 120 rooms, November: Located near downtown, the hotel has a gym, pool, cafe, bar and 9,000 square feet of meeting space.

■ Home 2 Suites, West Palm Beach, 120 rooms, November: Located near Palm Beach International Airport, the hotel offers a business center, exercise facilities and outdoor pool.

■ Wyndham Garden, 110 rooms, Lake Worth: Offers restaurant and bar prominent in the check-in and elevator area. Also includes banquet rooms and outside covered seating.

2020

■ Amrit Ocean Resort & Residences, 150 rooms, Singer Island, January: The property has a

100,000-square foot space for an outdoor spa and wellness amenities including a meditation garden and yoga studios.

■ Autograph by Marriott ‘The Ben’, 208 rooms, West Palm Beach, January: Luxury boutique hotel offers prime views of the Palm Harbor Marina and Intracoastal Waterway. Fitness center, rooftop pool, more than 7,800 square feet of event space. The hotel is on an old city hall site that will also contain shops and apartments.

■ Banyan Cay Resort & Golf, 150 rooms, West Palm Beach, October: Located on

250 acres, the resort offers golf practice facilities and a course designed by Jack Nicklaus.

■ Canopy, 151 rooms, West Palm Beach, January: The

13-story Hilton offers an infinity rooftop pool and bar, a full-service restaurant and more than 5,000-square feet of event space.

■ Residence Inn, 126 rooms, Palm Beach Gardens, February: Five-story hotel at

4250 Design Center Drive is part of a mixed-use project on the northeast corner of RCA Boulevard, south of PGA Boulevard interchange with Interstate 95.

■ White Elephant, 32 rooms, Palm Beach, February: Historic hotel dates back to the 1920s and is being transformed luxury property with contemporary interpretation of Mediterranean-revival architecture. Less than two blocks from the ocean.

2021

■ Hilton Curio, 143 rooms, Delray Beach: Developer pegs its design as “Tropical Modernism.” The hotel will boast a 20,000 square foot rooftop pool deck, Japanese restaurant, private event space for up to 300 and two floors of underground parking.

■ One West Palm, 201 rooms, West Palm Beach: Part of downtown twintower office, residential and hotel complex. Project includes 14,400 square feet of meeting space, gym, indoor pools, indoor tennis courts, a spa, shops, movie screen and restaurants.

■ Mandarin Oriental, 164 rooms, Boca Raton: The downtown hotel will feature two rooftop pools, fine dining restaurant, cake shop and bars including Mandarin’s MO Bar + Lounge on the roof with an outdoor terrace.

Hotels on the Drawing Board

Below are 11 projects with

1,700 rooms in the final stages of planning:

■ Aloft Hotel, 140 rooms, West Palm Beach

■ Aloft Hotel, 150 rooms, Palm Beach Gardens

■ Drury Hotel, 300 rooms, Palm Beach Gardens

■ 464 Fern Street, 200 rooms, West Palm Beach

■ Gulfstream Hotel, 106 rooms, Lake Worth

■ Hampton Inn, 125 rooms, Jupiter

■ Hilton Hotel Airport, 140 rooms, West Palm Beach

■ Holiday Inn Express, 100 rooms, West Palm Beach

■ Hotel Indigo, 224 rooms, West Palm Beach

■ Radisson Red, 144 rooms, Boynton Beach

■ Springhill Suites, 120 rooms, Jupiter

Source: Discover The Palm Beaches, South Florida Sun Sentinel research, published reports.

CARLINE JEAN/SUN SENTINEL The lobby of Palm Beach County’s first convention center hotel, the 400-room Hilton West Palm Beach, which opened last year. Now, more than a dozen hotel projects are under way around the county as demand grows for more lodging space.