Miami Beach Building Exempted From Hotel Restriction Hits The Market
A nearly century-old apartment building in Miami Beach's Art Deco Historict District is now up for sale — and prospective buyers could benefit from its status as one of the few exceptions to a new law aimed at curbing hotel development in the area.
Melvyn Schlesser tapped CBRE to seek offers on The Alamac, a seven-story, 45-unit apartment building at 1300 Collins Ave. on South Beach.
The Alamac was designed in 1934 by V.H. Nellenbogen, a prominent architect of Miami Beach hotels, according to the Miami Design Preservation League. The 116-room Mediterranean Revival-style hotel opened in 1936 and operated for decades as budget accommodations.
Schlesser, who leads Jameck Development Inc., purchased the building for $1M in 1986, according to public property records. He converted it into a 45-unit apartment building with 3,500 SF of ground-floor retail that today is 100% occupied, according to the listing.
CBRE Senior Vice President David Wigoda has the listing and is marketing the property as a value-add opportunity because of below-market rents in the apartments and retail.
Neither Wigoda nor Schlesser responded to Bisnow's request for comment.
Future owners of the building have a chance to turn it into a hotel — a rare opportunity for the historic stretch of South Beach after new legislation was enacted last year to curb hotel developments.
The city of Miami Beach passed an ordinance last year requiring that developers looking to convert residential buildings secure a five-sevenths vote from the six-member city commission and mayor. The restriction also applies to ground-up hotels, hostels and apartment-hotels.
The law was created to incentivize more residential development and preserve existing housing for the tourist hot spot's workers.
But The Alamac site, along with waterfront sites already zoned for hotels, was carved out from the law because it was originally constructed as a hotel.
The carve-out was added to the law after Schlesser went before the commission and asked it to preserve his right to redevelop the site into a hotel again, though he said he had no immediate plans to do so.
He also expressed that market conditions and the surrounding areas' lack of rental units have made it challenging to keep running the apartment building. Without the ability to redevelop the property back into a hotel, he would have to consider short-term rentals, he said at the February 2025 meeting.
"This is the Entertainment District, that's what it should be," Schlesser said at the meeting. "I cannot run it forever as a residential building, and I want the right to bring it back to what it originally was."
He offered not to make any effort to convert the building for a year, since there are tenants living in the building. Two of the apartments are being offered as short-term rentals on the Roami platform.
Schlesser also owns and operates two other Miami Beach properties: the Lincoln Center, a retail center on Lincoln Road, and The Parkedge, a six-unit boutique apartment complex.
While the listing price was not disclosed, nearby hotel trades suggest The Alamac could trade for upward of $30M. The Fairwind Hotel, a 150-room hotel built in 1936 that's a six-minute walk away from The Alamac, sold for $31M in November.
