Delray Beach-based hotel developer Ocean Properties LLP has reached agreement with Palm Beach County Commissioners to build a $100 million hotel and condo complex next to the Palm Beach County convention center – finally.

Talk has been just talk for many years, said Commissioner Mary McCarty, and after the 6-0 vote for approval of the plan, she added: “Now let’s get this sucker built.”

Commissioner Jeff Koons tossed in his two cents, saying after McCarty’s remark: “And now we need to talk about what the convention center itself wants to be when it grows up.”

The hotel will be a 25-story, 400-room Westin-operated hotel, in turn leased from the county for 99 years. Ocean Properties must then buy the hotel and land at fair market value after the 99-year lease lapses.

The project will also include a 1,809-space parking garage that the county will own and operate. The county is obligated to about $40 million of the construction costs, and with Ocean Properties paying about $10 million. The garage will service the hotel, along with owners in a 104-unit, 20-story condo tower adjacent to the new hotel. The deal also includes that the condo land will be deeded to Ocean Properties at no cost upon completion.

Commissioners also said that the county could reserve 75 percent of hotel’s inventory 18 months out, and that the maximum room rate could be no higher than the hotel’s published corporate rate, plus a maximum six percent annual increase.

Another and more practical part of the deal is a $2.6 million tunnel that Ocean Properties will build at county expense. The tunnel will permit valets to shuttle autos from the convention center’s Okeechobee Blvd. entrance to the parking garage. The county will own and maintain the tunnel.

Initial bond financing for the hotel was approved by commissioners this week, and with expected completion of the project by the end of 2010.

“We are very hopeful that Ocean Properties can bring it in earlier than that,” said Shannon LaRocque, the assistant county administrator who was the county’s principal negotiator in the deal.

Also as part of the deal is that the county can’t subsidize another hotel within five miles — except for an area around the Palm Beach County International airport, LaRocque said.

Information from: /www.bocaratonnews.com

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 15th, 2007 at 10:14 pm and is filed under Condo, Hotel, Real Estate. Tags: Commissioners Condo Convention Center County Commission Delray Beach hotel developer International Airport Inventory Jeff Koons Mary McCarty New Hotel Palm Beach Palm Beach County Shannon Westin . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.