July 03–The luxurious Four Seasons hotel brand is expanding across South Florida, in large part through the efforts of developer and entrepreneur Nadim Ashi of Fort Partners in Miami.

Ashi’s current projects include The Surf Club Four Seasons Hotel & Residences, under construction in Surfside near Miami Beach, and the Four Seasons Hotel & Residences Fort Lauderdale, which is expected to break ground by year’s end.

An affiliated company had already acquired the 210-room Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach last year, and Ashi is looking for spots in the Naples area, possibly to develop another Four Seasons.

Ashi said he chose Four Seasons because of the company’s stability and reputation.

“Because you are selling real estate, we feel it is important to create the assurance for the buyer that once the developer is gone there is something that is much more sustainable over the long term,” he said.

Toronto-based Four Seasons, whose hotels are known for refined service, opened its first hotel in 1961 and expanded into the U.S. in the 1980s. Today it has more than 30 hotels nationwide, including the Four Seasons Hotel Miami and the Four Seasons Resort Orlando at Walt Disney World Resort.

The Surf Club project, at 9011 Collins Ave., is set to be completed in spring 2016. It will feature an 80-room Four Seasons Hotel in its own tower and two 12-story residential towers with 150 homes, including 12 penthouses. The hotel and residential development also will have a private club, two restaurants, four swimming pools and a spa and fitness center.

The development is almost 75 percent presold after sales launched earlier this year, Ashi said.

As of early June, prices for the residences at The Surf Club Four Seasons ranged from $3 million to $35 million. The project blends old with new by incorporating the historic 1920s-era Surf Club in its design.

Its target buyer is wealthy Americans looking for a second or third home that are seeking the kind of services a Four Season can provide.

Meanwhile, the Fort Lauderdale development is scheduled for completion in 2018.

Fueled by early success with The Surf Club, Ashi began looking for another South Florida site that wouldn’t compete with his other properties.

He liked what he saw in Fort Lauderdale and was drawn by its ease of access and growing international airport.

Fort Lauderdale also offered the chance to develop a similar Four Seasons project, but at half the price of The Surf Club — one that might appeal more to younger affluent buyers or foreigners.

For example, a two-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot residence at the Fort Lauderdale Four Seasons project is priced around $3.5 million, while a 2,500-square-foot, two-bedroom residence at The Surf Club is selling for about $7 million, Ashi said.

Overall, the prices for the Four Seasons Fort Lauderdale residences start at $1.2 million to more than $10 million. Sales of the residences will launch officially during the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show in early November.

Ashi is partnering with Merrimac Ventures on the Fort Lauderdale beachfront project, which will be built on 1.8 acres at 521 to 529 N. Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd. Merrimac owns a minority stake in the project, he said.

The 23-story Four Seasons in Fort Lauderdale will have about 150 hotel rooms and 95 residences, two restaurants, a spa, fitness center, children’s recreation room and ballroom and meeting facilities.

The family of Merrimac President Dev Motwani — long time developers and operators of hotels in the area — previously owned the land earmarked for the Four Seasons.

“Our family has been in the area for nearly 30 years, watching and helping the beach transform into a luxury tourism market,” Motwani said. “The destination has come a long way since the Spring Break days … and the Four Seasons Fort Lauderdale really caps a dream my parents had for this place when we moved here back in the ’80s.”

In Palm Beach, Fort Properties bought the Four Seasons from its Canadian owners in May 2014 for an undisclosed amount.

“We felt the Palm Beach property is a stunning beach location, and the hotel is doing extremely well,” Ashi said.

In 2014, the Four Seasons Palm Beach at 2800 S. Ocean Blvd recorded its fourth consecutive year of record-breaking revenue, General Manager Colin Clark said during a recent hotel tour.

Before buying the property, Ashi took over the previous owners’ exclusive rights to develop any new Four Seasons along Florida’s Atlantic coast. Those rights allowed him to pursue Surfside as a Four Seasons project.

Next summer, in an effort to put a “new face” on the Palm Beach hotel, upgrades will be done to its restaurants, lobby and resort amenities, Ashi said. The guest rooms are expected to be refreshed in a later renovation phase.

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