The Goodtime Hotel with Pharrell Williams and (from above) David Grutman, Michael D. Fascitelli and Eric Birnbaum (Getty, Alice Gao)
After about five years and $ 200 million, the Goodtime Hotel is almost open.
The Washington Avenue hotel, developed by Michael D. Fascitelli and Eric Birnbaum of Imperial Companies, opens Thursday. The developers brought in star talent to supply and operate the property: Pharrell Williams, hospitality mogul David Grutman, and designer Ken Fulk.
The 266-key hotel on 601 Washington Avenue has approximately 100,000 square feet of public space, Grutman’s 30,000 square foot Strawberry Moon Restaurant and Pool Club, 45,000 square feet of retail on the ground floor, a gym, and a library.
The project is the first hotel for Grutman, the founder of Groot Hospitality. The developers paid $ 36 million for the entire Washington Avenue block in 2015, records show. The project was partially financed at the beginning of 2018 with a loan of USD 45 million from the bank OZK.
“That area of Washington Avenue was in dire straits,” said Fascitelli. “It took a lot of money to get to this point.”
Fulk said it “feels like the perfect moment” to open the hotel with so much attention being paid to South Florida. The Goodtime is hosting the start of the InterMiami football season on Friday and will be running pool activations this weekend to celebrate the opening, Grutman said.
The hotel and property were designed by architect Morris Adjmi, Fulk and landscape architect Raymond Jungles. Hotel rooms range from about 200 square feet to 1,000 square feet, Birnbaum said.
The partners, who described the hotel as “approachable luxury,” said they were open to developing other Goodtime properties. Birnbaum and his Dreamscape Companies are buying hotels across the country. He said he’s also looking for new development locations in the Miami area.
“The key is to get this right and make it a success,” added Birnbaum. “When and if we do that, there will be opportunities.”
Contact Katherine Kallergis
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