Fort Lauderdale – Crowds sipping and sipping on mocktails are crowded around the oversized miniature replicas of the St. Regis Resort & Residence Hotel and the gorgeous Condo Tower that will come to Bahia in March.
They took a photo. They recorded the video. They aahed, aahed.
The crowd, mostly real estate agents and potential buyers, gathered at the St. Regis sales gallery on Tuesday to hear from a panel of experts who share insights into how the $2 billion project will affect Fort Lauderdale.
Dean Trantalis, mayor of Fort Lauderdale. Anthony Cordo, Vice President of Visit to Lauderdale, County’s Tourism Promotion Division. Craig Studnicky is co-founder and CEO of Alloceisg Realty and made up a trio of panelists. Lifestyle and travel journalist Angela Caraway Carlton took on the role of moderator.
“This project is really gorgeous,” she said as she began the panel discussion. “What’s going to happen here is a $2 billion transformation. This will be a 40-acre tropical reserve. There will also be Megayahat Marina, restaurants, food and retail. This will be a luxuriously dripping project.”
The five-star resort and four luxurious condo towers rise at city-owned Byamer, home to the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. The units sell for $3 million, up to $25 million.
Jimmy Tate, developer who owns Bahia Mar’s 100-year lease, worked with related groups to build the project.
The hotel and two condo towers are part of the first phase and are expected to break into the summer of 2026.
“The goal is to have 45% to 50% advance sales,” Tate told South Florida’s Sun Sentinel. “We expect to be there by the first quarter of 2026, so we could break in next summer.”
The remaining two condominium towers, which are part of the second phase, will later break into the market based on market conditions, Tate said.
Trantalis called out a game changer and project in a tourist town once known as a spring break destination.
“When we talk about St. Regis, we’re really talking about the future of Fort Lauderdale,” Trantalis said Tuesday in a panel discussion. “For years, Fort Lauderdale has called this beautiful harbor Bahia Mar, but in some way it seemed to be lacking. When I was here before, when I saw this vast asphalt wasteland, I’m working with the Tate Family and associated groups.
Baia Ma is just one property undergoing a dramatic transformation on Barrier Island.
Nearby Las Olas Marina, a $60 million project over eight years, opened in December. 151 Las Olas Circle’s 88 slip marina features floating concrete docks designed for some of the largest yachts in the glove.
Next is Las Olas Ocean, a large project that takes up three blocks with Las Olas and A1A. The developer is planning to build a 500-unit, 29-storey twin condominium tower. A hotel with 373 rooms. Luxury shops and restaurants. A parking garage with 1,323 spaces.
Plans for an aquarium, rooftop restaurant and a new museum are approaching the massive $218 million makeover of the International Swimming Hall of Fame complex. The project aims to cultivate a six-storey building on the city-owned peninsula south of Las Olas, with modern buildings on the east and six-storey buildings on the west overlooking the coast.
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If you want to buy a location at a nearby St. Regis, you will need a deep pocket.
“Our buyers came from South Beach, California and Newport,” said Daniel Teixeira, vice president of sales at Bya March at St. Regis Residences.
The condos are selling for $5 million to $25 million for penthouse units, Teisheira said. Hotel homes sell for between $3 million and $25 million.
The four St. Regis Condo Towers each have 80 units, totaling 320 units.
According to Teixeira, the tower facing the space will include 79 furnished homes on the 14th to 22nd floors that can be purchased.
The same tower includes 197 hotel rooms on the 3rd to 12th floors. Rooms are likely to cost over $1,000 per night, Teixeira said.
The St. Regis properties are just one example of a luxury project that is taking things to the next level, Corde said.
All luxury hotels along the beach compete in these high-end markets, he said. And the St. Regis will add even more high-end rooms.
“The project is a high-end luxury,” Cordo said. “But we can’t ignore the reasons why Fort Lauderdale and Broward County are genuine. There are restaurants nearby, owned by a generation of immigrants. Few stores owned by Mama and Pops. When you live in a place like this, you can have a real experience just by walking through the front door.”
Five years ago, the pandemic sent hundreds of people to Fort Lauderdale, Trantalis said. And they’re still coming.
“A more and more people are coming to Fort Lauderdale, especially the youth,” he said. “We don’t want to be Miami, not Miami. We don’t want to be Palm Beach, not Palm Beach. We created our own brand. There’s a place for everyone in Fort Lauderdale.”
Studnicky touted Byamal’s fortune as America’s “future Monaco.”
“This is a real estate that has never been before, never before,” he said. “There are a lot of oceanfront facilities to be developed, some of them are rifts in old buildings that are replaced by sparkling, beautiful, new architectural wonders.
Most luxury condominium towers in Miami Beach offer only 150 to 350 feet of beaches, Studnicky said. The St. Regis Resort features almost 0.5 miles of beachfront, or 2,000 feet, to be precise.
“That’s a big deal,” Studnicky said. “I know the value of the beach. It’s gold. It’s pure gold.”
