Redo of historic Gulfstream Hotel begins. What did developers find when they started work?
It was last call for the Gulfstream Hotel's most recent visitors, the kind that linger at the bar, attract unsavory friends and generally make a mess of things.
The guests should be gone now, thanks to a tenting job that ended the termites' after-hours stay in the historic Lake Worth Beach hotel.
Unfortunately, the hotel bar was decimated by the wood-eating beasts, but a city official said that's to be expected after the hotel's shuttered status for nearly 20 years.
Restoration St. Louis, a Missouri-based firm specializing in historic restoration, is hard at work getting the historic hotel at 1 Lake Avenue ready for its redo. Next up is tackling asbestos in the aged building.
Work has started on historic Gulfstream Hotel in Lake Worth Beach even as key financing piece still in the works
Even as it starts work on the hotel, Restoration St. Louis still is in the midst of acquiring the property and vacant land next to it, said Amy Gill, who owns Restoration St. Louis with her husband, Amrit.
Restoration St. Louis is buying the properties from CDS International of Delray Beach.
Amrit Gill said that a final element of the financing for the purchase still is incomplete. It's an $11 million grant from the state of Florida to developers who build to "green" building standards. He said he expects the state to provide the money shortly.
Candy-cane dreams: Could the historic Gulfstream Hotel finally sell in December?
Old Florida hotel site in Lake Worth Beach to get new life
The transaction marks a new start for the aged property, which opened in 1925 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The hotel closed its doors in 2005, a blow to the seaside city's downtown district. The Gulfstream is considered the only viable hotel option for tourists to downtown Lake Worth Beach and potentially is a major economic boost to nearby businesses.
The Lake Avenue hotel is across from the Intracoastal Waterway and Bryant Park.
In 2014, a group tied to CDS International paid $7.2 million for the hotel. Solid plans for a redo of the hotel finally began to take shape in August 2019 when CDS brought Restoration St. Louis to the venture. In addition to restoring the hotel, plans also include the addition of 50 hotel rooms, plus 85 apartments and a parking garage in an eight-story building.
But then the coronavirus pandemic killed off financing for a couple of years, putting a temporary freeze on the hotel's redo.
Gulfstream Hotel: Historic Lake Worth Beach property is on track to sell in October
The sale to Restoration St. Louis finally was set for October 2023, but then that deadline was delayed so the city could approve an updated plat for new entrances and exits and utility easements at the site. The plat also separates the hotel property and an approved hotel addition into separate parcels. The plat approval was granted by the city in early December.
By the end of February, the project's building permits should also be approved by the city of Lake Worth Beach, which for weeks has been reviewing draft construction plans submitted last year.
The city issued a demolition permit for the project on Dec. 22, prompting the arrival of a dumpster at the site. The dumpster's appearance was cause for celebration by residents eager to see the hotel restored.
"I got several calls from people saying, 'Oh, there’s a dumpster. This is the best Christmas present ever,' " said William Waters, Lake Worth Beach's community sustainability director.
Alexandra Clough is a business writer at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at aclough@pbpost.com. X: @acloughpbp. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Lake Worth Beach's Gulfstream Hotel redo starts with termite tenting
