Condo-resort to open next month
FORT LAUDERDALE — The luxury Conrad Fort Lauderdale Beach resort — once expected to open in 2016 — is now looking to welcome its first guests in September, the property’s general manager has told the Sun Sentinel.
Chintan Dadhich said the 290-unit all-suite condo-resort at 551 N. Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd. is still receiving the finishing touches to its guest rooms, which should be completed in mid-August. Final staff recruiting and training is continuing through the next several weeks.
“We want to make sure our team is delivering timeless and flawless service that will be intuitive and responsive,” Dadhich said.
When the doors open on a still-to-be-determined date in September, the condominium-resort will feature four dining and bar venues, including a signature restaurant Terra Mare and gourmet marketplace Cornucopia.
The Conrad’s residences are a mix of studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom suites and three penthouses. Amenities include galley kitchens with touch-screen stovetops and bathrooms
with marble soaking tubs and rainfall showers.
Prices for the residences had starting ranges from the $400,000s to $700,000s for studios and up to more than $5 million for the penthouses, Orchestra officials had said.
In a condo-hotel, units are professionally managed and rented to visitors when their owners aren’t staying there. Opening nightly rates will start at $379, the company said.
The 24-story property will offer a 4,000-square-foot full-service spa, fitness center, 20,000-square-foot sixthfloor Sky Deck with heated
fresh water pool and cabanas and 10,000 square feet of meeting space.
The Fort Lauderdale property will be Conrad’s second location in South Florida, joining the Conrad Miami in downtown Miami. It’s also expected to be the first beachfront resort and residence for the luxury brand in the region.
Earlier this year, Canadian real estate investment firm Heafey Group paid more than $91 million for 232 units.
The sale came months after former owner CFLB Partnerships LLC, an affiliate of Orchestra Hotels & Resorts encountered reported construction loan and contractor lien issues last summer with its own renovation and launch plans.
The resort had previously been expected to open in spring 2016, according to Orchestra officials.
CFLB had acquired the condo-resort property in December 2013 for $115 million with plans to invest more than $30 million on upgrades and design changes to transform it to Conrad. Prior to that, the property had been earmarked for a never-opened condo-hotel project that carried the name of Donald Trump under a marketing agreement. But the arrangement ended amid the recession.