Gambling venues along U.S. Route 441 in Hollywood, Florida are raising expectations for new developments, according to realtors and others.
The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino’s Guitar Hotel is the main attraction, but new parimutuel permit holders in Broward and Miami-Dade counties also are planning projects near their racetracks. And the new 30-year compact with the Seminole Tribe allows the tribe to develop three more casinos in the vicinity of the Seminole Hard Rock.
South Florida developer Lon Tabatchnick said, “That whole 441 Corridor is ripe for expansion. The Seminole Hard Rock is the whole reason we’re invested on 441. They have 5,000 employees. I only need to fill 176 apartments.” Tabatchnick is the co-developer of 441 Roc, a mixed-use project with a Wendy’s, Wawa and rental apartments.
Gulfstream Park racino in Hallandale Beach, the first of the eight South Florida parimutuels to offer slots in 2006, leads the way in developing commercial space around a gambling property. In 2010, Gulfstream’s owner, Canada-based Stronach Group, opened the Village at Gulfstream Park, a retail and restaurant area next to the racino. The city recently granted the Stronach Group permission add hotels, condos and apartment buildings, according to Ken Krasnow, vice chairman of institutional investor services in Florida for the brokerage firm Colliers International.
Colliers worked with Stronach Group on a feasibility study to determine how many residential units and hotel rooms the company should develop, and on a redesign of the retail area. Krasnow said, “Some of it works well. Some of it has been struggling. It’s more of a design flaw than a problem with the underlying demographics.”
He noted the bottom line is to leverage the popularity of the racetrack and casino to create a community around it. However, at the moment the Stronach family is involved in lawsuits over who’s in control.
“They’ve got bigger issues to work out, like who’s in charge and who’s going to make those kinds of decisions,” Krasnow said.
In Broward County Caesars Entertainment plans to redevelop the 232-acre Isle Casino Pompano Park in Pompano Beach. Last year, the city granted Caesars approval of a mixed-use master plan to build up to 1.5 million square feet of industrial space, 1.35 million square feet of office space, 950 hotel rooms and 4,100 residential units next to the casino. The venue announced its 2021 harness racing season will be its last, but its 1,400 slot machines generated $54 million in net revenue for the 12 months ending in June 2020, making Isle one of the most profitable casinos in South Florida.
In Miami-Dade County, 200 acres adjacent to the Hialeah Park racino will be developed by Bal Bay Park to include a new public charter school and 343 rental units.
Also in Hallandale Beach, real estate mogul Jeffrey Soffer purchased the Big Easy parimutuel in 2018. Developer Daniel Chaberman said the Big Easy is “a very big piece of property that most likely, eventually, is going to get redeveloped. Maybe in the medium term, it could become something much bigger than it is right now.” Chaberman’s company, Grupo Eco, bought land just east of the Big Easy for $22 million to develop Atlantic Village, a mixed-use commercial property.
Another developer, Leon Ojalvo, also said it’s not what is but what could be that drove his decision to build an 81-unit apartment complex just north of the Big Easy. “What it might be in the future was a driving factor. I don’t view it as a positive or a negative. I just view it as a big piece of land that is underutilized,” Ojalvo said.
But developing income-producing property on or near parimutuels is risky business, said South Florida developer Allen Morris. “Casinos are intentionally designed to be internal cash generators, not external cash generators. We saw it in places like Atlantic City, where people opened up businesses all around the casinos, and they all went bankrupt, because the casinos are designed to keep people inside,” Morris stated.
The Seminole compact also allows sports betting, operated by the tribe. If the compact survives lawsuits filed by the Havenick family, owners of the racino Magic City Casino, observers said certain South Florida property owners also could benefit. For example, the city of Miami has approved a mixed-use development by Russell Galbut, just north of the city, including a jai alai fronton and a poker room. Commissioners’ approval depended on banning other types of gaming, but allowed sports betting if it is legalized.
Another developer, Sharon Sharaby, is involved in a project to build a kosher hotel directly across U.S. 441 from the Seminole Hard Rock. He said he’ll open the 6-story, 100-room Wyndham Dolce Kosher House Hotel in October 2022. The project will have a kosher restaurant and a “Sabbath elevator” that automatically will stop on every floor so no operation is necessary.
Sharaby said the Seminole Hard Rock will complement, not compete with, his lower-priced hotel. “We’re a fraction of the price. So, my guests are going to sleep at my hotel and go gamble at the Hard Rock. I’m not a casino.” As if that’s not enough, Sharaby also plans to develop a second kosher hotel under the Wyndham Grand brand on a 2-acre site on U.S. 441, just north of the first one.
“There are people who look at the casino like the ocean,” Sharaby said. “They want to wake up in front of a casino.”
