If all goes as planned, the long-awaited Palm House in the heart of Palm Beach will undergo a complete renovation and could welcome its first guests on Wednesday, according to the luxury hotel’s general manager.
Palm House officials are busy working to get final approval from City Hall, which is dependent on building inspection approval and the issuance of a certificate of occupancy and a so-called business tax receipt. Once these documents are available, the hotel will be able to open at 160 Royal Palm Way.
The building had been shuttered for 17 years. The current owners bought the property out of bankruptcy in 2019 and have been renovating it for the past three years on the Sea Block property, which sits on one of the town’s main streets.
Last Thursday, Palm Beach Planning, Zoning and Building Director Wayne Bergman said the town was monitoring the renovations and was “waiting for all final inspections” before giving the green light to open the hotel. said.
The timing of these final inspections and the issuance of the City Hall approval letter “is up to the contractor and the (completion of) their remaining work,” Bergman said Monday.
Palm House general manager Chris Jaycock said last week that the hotel aims to open the day before Thanksgiving.
“We are ready to open (Nov. 27) and look forward to welcoming the Palm Beach community to experience what Palm House has to offer,” Jaycock announced early last week. , a spokesperson for the association said in a statement confirmed Thursday. Hotel.
But don’t expect a grand opening celebration anytime soon. It is expected that it will be done later. Instead, the hotel plans to hold what is known in the industry as a “soft” opening to allow time to improve operations and resolve issues.
“As our hotel team finds its way into the Palm Beach season, we will prioritize lower occupancy rates during the first few weeks to ensure the highest level of service,” Jaycock said.
The Palm House will be the first U.S. property to open as part of the international iconic luxury hotel brand. The brand is part of L+R Hotels, a London-based hotel investment and management company that used an affiliate to purchase the Palm House property in 2019 for approximately $40 million. The company, also known as London and Regional Group Hotel Holdings, has a portfolio of more than 105 hotels around the world, including the Marriott Hotel in West Palm Beach.
The iconic luxury hotel portfolio also includes Britain’s Cliveden House, which attracted international headlines in 2018 when Meghan Markle stayed there the night before her wedding to Prince Harry.
Featuring 79 rooms, including 21 suites, the Palm House features a courtyard surrounded by an expansive pool. Indoor dining room with 88 seats. There is also a function room with a garden terrace and poolside lawn. Rates for a double-occupancy room start at $1,289 during the “peak season” and drop to $499 during the off-season, hotel officials said. The hotel’s website, PalmHouse.com, is already live.
Hotel officials told the Palm Beach Daily News in September that they plan to open the hotel in November.
When the hotel opens, guests entering through the driveway on Royal Palm Way will be treated to the Palm Beach, a “chic retreat where elegance meets craft cocktails,” according to a statement released to the Palm Beach Daily News. He said he would be met at the bar.
The bar and lounge will feature three custom coral-colored Murano glass chandeliers suspended from a vaulted ceiling inlaid with antique mirrors. The bar is made of bright pink marble and the mosaic floor is made of matte polished marble.
South of Palm Bar is an outdoor dining patio and pool courtyard. The Sunset Pool Deck features cabana beds, lounge chairs, poolside service, and a “pool butler.” A comprehensive food and drink menu is available poolside.
Accommodations will average more than 550 square feet, making them “some of the largest hotel rooms in Palm Beach,” hotel officials said. The property has a ground floor terrace room overlooking the pool and a patio for lounging and dining.
Meanwhile, the two-story Presidential Suite will span approximately 2,000 square feet and feature a 9-by-9-foot “Alaskan King” bed, touted as the largest hotel bed in Palm Beach. Suites with butler service have 2 balconies overlooking the pool.
The Palm House is built with its own underground parking garage, but guests are only cared for by valet staff, and employees are shuttled to and from the property. These conditions were laid out in a 2021 “declaration of use” agreement between Palm House owners’ representatives and the city council, which is concerned about traffic issues associated with operating the hotel.
The renovation was designed by Atlanta-based architecture firm Cooper Carey, with interior design by London-based Muza Lab and art by consultant Minda Dowling. Hedrick Brothers of West Palm Beach is the general contractor.
Once known as the heart of Palm Beach, the property was purchased in 2007 by a company managed by developer Robert V. Matthews, then a Palm Beach resident. Matthews is serving a 65-month sentence in federal prison in Pensacola today after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering while using investor funds earmarked for property renovations.
After years of sputtering construction under Matthews and briefly under different owners, it came to an abrupt halt in 2014 amid an ownership rift. The property’s complicated history included not only criminal charges, but also local ordinance violations, an SEC investigation, and bankruptcy. Work did not resume until L&R purchased the property for a record $39.6 million in a court-approved deal five years ago.
The town’s Building Commission approved most of the renovations in late 2020. Representatives for the hotel’s owners told town council in March 2021 that the hotel was scheduled to open as early as November 2022.
But by August 2022, project architect Sean McClendon told the Palm Beach Daily News that supply chain issues related to the coronavirus pandemic were slowing construction progress. Ta. He also attributed the delay to an unexpected and extensive renovation project related to the removal of unapproved renovations that were carried out before the property changed hands in 2019.
The Palm House joins 10 other hotels operating in Palm Beach. That includes the oldest and largest, The Breakers, located about a mile north of the Palm House in Midtown. The former Chesterfield, another Midtown landmark hotel, is being renovated and is scheduled to reopen as The Vineta early next year.
dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com
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This is a developing story. Please check again for the latest information. Portions of this article previously appeared in the Palm Beach Daily News.
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Darrell Hofheinz is a Florida journalist for the USA TODAY Network who writes about Palm Beach real estate in his weekly “Beyond the Hedges” column. He welcomes information regarding real estate news on the island. Email dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com, call 561-820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz. Please support our journalism. Subscribe now.
