A new seven-story luxury hotel could rise next to a Sunrise shopping center just west of I-75, a plan that has drawn mixed reactions.
The hotel would be branded as a high-end Hyatt Place, with select service options, and Hyatt House, with upscale extended-stay services, according to H&M principal Daniel Masveyraud. It would include 174 rooms and span 102,271 square feet.
It would be built by Weston Hotel Management 18 LLC, an affiliate of H&M Development, on a parcel behind the Indian Trace Center, a shopping destination on the southwestern end of the city of Sunrise, footsteps from Weston. The center has been a longtime fixture for residents in both cities.
Supporters say the hotel could be an economic boon, offering new amenities and convenience. Alejandro Lopez, owner of Wings in Weston, a restaurant in the shopping center, sees it as an opportunity.
“As a locally owned, independent restaurant, we rely on steady foot traffic and a vibrant local economy,” Lopez wrote to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “A hotel brings visitors, business travelers, and families who will dine, shop, and spend their dollars at nearby mom-and-pop establishments.”
But there has been a swell of opposition, with neighbors raising concerns about potential traffic congestion, light and noise pollution, safety, and the prospect of even more development. An online petition against the hotel has garnered almost 3,900 signatures.
“No one wants to see a seven-story hotel from the backyard of their house, especially when they’ve seen a green parcel their whole entire life,” said 16-year-old Jett Grom, who started the petition with his friend Paul Gracey, also 16.
Plans take shape
A rezoning application under consideration would change the designation of 15 acres, including most of the plaza, from a community business district to a planned development district, or PDD.
The PDD designation would allow the construction of seven stories, the future development of mixed-use spaces in the zone, and for H&M to pursue improvements in the plaza.
A master plan calls for two phases that could affect several parcels. The first phase includes rezoning and the hotel plan, while the second phase would allow the development of parts of the zone for “residential, commercial, and office uses.”
Residents expressed concerns about increased population density, especially with the prospect of new residential builds.
“What we’re fighting against really is that rezoning, right?” said Sunrise resident Niccole Pazos, 41. “And the mixed-use spaces then will impact and implicate the residents in varying ways.”
During a quasi-judicial hearing before the City Commission on Feb. 3, H&M representatives presented several aspects of the plan and its projected impact.
These included improvements to the shopping center — including increased lighting, security measures, pedestrian crosswalks, landscaping and new signage.
Masveyraud said he, too, is a neighbor who frequents the shopping center and is well-versed with the area.
The partners at H&M “are members of the local community and plan to own this hotel for the very long term,” Masveyraud told the Sun Sentinel in an email. “I personally live five minutes away from the site, and have, for years, visited the shopping center at least three times for week for lunch and/or dinner.”
Jimmy Tate of Tate Capital, the shopping center’s original developer, leases spaces in the plaza to local businesses and contracted with H&M for the hotel build. He noted that since there are many hospital and medical buildings in the region, patients’ family members would have a place to stay when visiting their loved ones.
The hotel also would address the demand for upscale accommodations in the area; Masveyraud projected a stabilized occupancy rate of 82%.
Raising concerns
An independent study determined that the hotel, which visitors would be able to access through two existing driveways on 160th Avenue, would generate an additional 1,133 trips on the road per day. It would continue to operate at an acceptable level of service, according to the study.
Some residents argue more traffic isn’t needed in the neighborhood, especially on a sloped road. “I have to go a separate way,” said Gracey, who lives in a neighborhood beside the proposed hotel lot. “It’s just going to bring more traffic.”
H&M has committed to funding and building an additional right turning lane at an intersection, Indian Trace and Southwest 160th Avenue, that sits beside the lot.
Pazos, Grom and Gracey questioned whether the hotel would raise security issues as a result of newcomers driving into the community, noting the presence of a preschool near the plaza. Tate and Masveyraud said the Hyatt-branded hotel, with its higher-end status, would draw affluent clientele.
“Our proposed hotel is an upscale Hyatt, not a motel,” Masveyraud wrote. “In fact, security experts have opined that it is safer to have a luxury hotel at the back of the shopping center than a vacant, unlit, undeveloped piece of land.”
Tate added he expected many patrons would be the family members of patients at nearby hospitals.
Tate also said the shopping center’s current businesses are poised to stay, despite community concerns over the potential loss of local fixtures: Some lease agreements extend into the 2030s and 2040s.
If approved, hotel construction could begin as early as this summer.
