Pritam Singh’s 175-Room “Ocean’s Edge Hotel” Sells For $175 Million
by Naja Girard…….
Sunstone Hotel Investors, Inc. announced this Wednesday that it has purchased “the 175-room Oceans Edge Hotel & Marina on Stock Island for $175 million.”
Ocean’s Edge Hotel has been an object of controversy in the Keys from the onset. It was pushed through as an upscale community consisting of “79 single family homes” and a small 17 room hotel. “It’s what we all want,” said developer Pritam Singh to the County’s Planning Commission, “to put our house by the water.” Each homeowner would own their own 2-bedroom unit with its own individual real estate tax number and, of course, each “homeowner” would have the option of living in their unit or, when they chose to, renting it out as a “vacation rental.”
But none of that was ever going to happen. “Ocean’s Edge” opened last January 2017 as a 175-room hotel.
Listing everything that went wrong has made for a dizzying exercise in investigating government failure. [Have a look here.] Residents on Stock Island complain of out of control traffic, the cost of utilities going through the roof, and the rapid disappearance of affordable options for renters, boaters, and local artisans.
The County had [and still has] a moratorium on all new hotel development in the Florida Keys. Why the County ultimately signed off on a Certificate of Occupancy for Ocean’s Edge, a 175-room hotel, without requiring the purchase and transfer of the proper number of existing hotel room building allocations [ROGOS’s] is something this publication is still investigating.
Sunstone Hotel Investors’ Press Release in full below:
[gview file=”https://thebluepaper.com/wp-content/uploads/PR-Oceans-Edge-Acq-2017-07-26.pdf”]
Excuse ME! What is wrong with this picture? The article says that there are 175 rooms but the SIGN in the PICTURE indicates that just in that section of the place there are 205 rooms. Never heard of skipping numbers for hotel rooms to make the place look bigger.
Ahh, just another slippery deal by Key West’s Donald Trump. Who is the best liar I wonder.
A different point of view.
Don’t blame Pritam.
He is well known in real estate development circles and among county and city planning boards. attorneys and elected officials.
Historically, Pritam says he’s gonna build one thing, and it ends up something else thing.
This is well known in the aforesaid circles.
So, blame the aforesaid circles for doing business with Priam.
He is what he is. He’s not gonna change.
Apparently, the aforesaid circles like Pritam just the way he is, because the aforesaid keep doing business with him.
In the law, that’s called “res ipsa loquitur” – the thing speaks for itself.
Doesn’t the state have an interest in this? Have they chimed in?
This is why I left Key Weird and will never be back!!!!!
Never forget one thing. When you buy property you buy the violations with it. I would call him smart to sell it, make a profit and the county or city can not touch you.
Shame on the county for not following their own Land Development Regulations. There ought to be a law. Oh wait, there is.
I love the Keys and Key West especially, but when I look at a this continuing hell-bent for leather development of ostentatious Disney-like attractions I can’t help but think of Atlantis before it went underwater.
So much for panic over sea level rise. Investors and bankers financing $175million hotel flies in face of declining property values because of flooding, etc. does it not?