Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Extended-stay hotel may be built next to Tamarac golf course
A developer is proposing a five-story hotel in Tamarac’s upscale Woodmont neighborhood, seeing an opportunity to build after another hotel was allowed to open nearby.
The proposal calls for a 127-room Home2 Suites by Hilton — an extended-stay hotel chain — adjacent to the Woodmont Country Club at 7801 NW 80 Ave., said developer Justin Schmidt.
If approved, it would be built less than a two-mile drive from Fairfield Inn by Marriott, which is already under construction on Northwest 88th Avenue, next to the city-owned Colony West golf course.
The City Commission signed a deal in 2015 to sell a nearly 3-acre piece of land next to the Colony West golf course to build the hotel, and in June 2016 amended the code.
The city had rebuffed prior attempts to build a hotel in Woodmont, but Schmidt argued the city opened the door for it when it allowed the Fairfield Inn to be built.
The city “revamped its code to allow hotels as an [ancillary] use to country clubs when they decided to develop a hotel on their property … after they told us they would never allow us to build one,” Schmidt said. “They made the process easier for themselves,” making it easier for other country club owners, too, he said.
Schmidt said Woodmont is currently under contract to sell a parcel of land next to the tennis courts to Palmeira Hold-
ings, a group with a “significant portfolio” of hotels, for the hotel construction. Guests will be able to use the country club facilities such
as the tennis courts and fitness center.
Schmidt said the closing is pending the city’s approval of the project. The price has not been disclosed.
Karim H. Ismail, co-CEO of Palmeira Holdings LLC, said construction could begin in the last quarter of this year, and the hotel to be opened in early 2021.
Ismail said the company was aware of the Colony West hotel project but “we believe that the area’s economics can easily accommodate our hotel, which will generate new construction jobs, and ongoing jobs and taxes, and [enrich] opportunities for tourists and visitors.”
In 2006, Woodmont owner Mark Schmidt, Justin Schmidt’s father, first proposed 448 homes on the aging golf course and a luxury hotel. The plans initially were rejected by neighbors and the City Commission, and his hotel project was scrapped. But the plans for home construction were resurrected twice and finally approved in 2014. Construction by home builder PulteGroup is now underway.
Hotel plans came up again in 2015 but they were shot down by city leaders, who cited the developer’s need to finish what he had already started.
The Woodmont hotel plans are expected to be heard before the Development Review Committee 9:15 a.m. Feb. 28 at Tamarac City Hall. A city spokeswoman could not be reached for comment Wednesday.