Private equity firm Nahla Capital wants to add two floors to the condo component of the Raleigh, Michael Shvo’s former redevelopment project of three historic Art Deco hotels along Miami’s Beach’s oceanfront.
The proposal would expand the residential tower to 17 stories, adding 66,264 square feet. The condo count would jump from 44 to 52 units, according to an application to the Miami Beach Planning Board, which will convene June 2.
Other proposed additions include the construction of a two-story “beach pavilion” next to the Raleigh’s famous fleur-de-lis-shaped pool to accommodate a 690-seat restaurant. The 331,419-square-foot development will also include a 60-room hotel.
Public documents show that Nahla Capital, led by Genghis Hadi, does not have partners in the project, which includes three adjoining properties built in the 1940s: the Raleigh, Richmond, and South Seas hotels located between 1751 and 1775 Collins Avenue. The structures will be rebuilt with the hotel component. Only their facades remain.
Last year, the New York-based firm won a bid to purchase the 3-acre development for $270 million from Shvo, a residential broker turned developer, and his partners, Deutsche Finance America and Bavarian pension fund Bayerische Versorgungskammer, who had been pushing for a sale.
The partnership had purchased the three hotels for a combined $220 million in 2019. The mixed-use redevelopment project had stalled, with no vertical construction. The development took another hit when the brokers leading the residential sales, brothers Tal and Oren Alexander, were indicted, and later convicted, of federal sex-trafficking charges.
In 2020, Miami Beach officials had approved plans for a 86-room hotel and 84-condo development, which was reduced to 44 condos and 60 hotel rooms two years later, according to the application.
Alfredo Gonzalez of Greenberg Traurig, the lawyer representing Nahla Capital, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.
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