Pelican spends some bills
Fort Lauderdale’s Pelican Grand Beach Resort gets a $7 million overhaul.
The Pelican Grand Beach Resort, one of the few hotels in Fort Lauderdale that sits right on the beach, is launching a $7 million renovation aimed at remodeling all of its 146 guest rooms and 16 suites.
Owner Noble House Hotels & Resorts Ltd. of Kirkland, Wash., also plans to add eight luxury suites to the resort’s lineup.
Degen & Degen, a Seattle architecture and interior design firm, is devising a concept where the rooms will boast “coastal artwork by local artisans” who will use frame prints and canvas, driftwood and nautical rope.
Rooms will also contain “spainspired fixtures, free-standing soaking tubs, walk-in showers and quartz counter tops,” according to a company statement.
The resort will remain open during the construction, which general manager Heidi Dennis said will occur in two stages.
“We’re doing 50 percent of the rooms at a time,” Dennis said. “A lot of places will go floor by floor. We’re taking the north stack of our rooms and doing them all at once. When those are competed, we will do the entire south stack.”
Dennis said the popular pool and “lazy river” water chute on the north side will remain intact. “We are not changing that,” she said. “We’ll be looking at a lobby renovation in the next year or two.”
The Victorian-styled resort with a wraparound veranda is on North Ocean Boulevard, less than 2 miles north of the historic Bonnet House. The resort closed briefly last year due to water damage incurred by Hurricane Irma.
The Pelican Grand serves as a southern anchor of Fort Lauderdale’s north beach section, a neighborhood populated by multistory condos and newly constructed condo projects such as the luxury Auberge Beach Residences & Spa, which is located directly on 450 feet of Atlantic beachfront.
The project is scheduled to open this fall, and Dennis welcomes it.
“Obviously with Auberge coming on board, they’re going to have a restaurant and the more we have to offer on the north end, the better,” she said.
“Our restaurant is spectacular, but not everyone is going to want to dine there every night. It gives us more options.”