Boutique Hotel Planned for West Palm Beach

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

Marriott Autograph Hotel, West Palm Beach, courtesy of Concord Hospitality

West Palm Beach, Fla.—A new boutique hotel flag will soon overlook the Intracoastal Waterway in Florida now that Concord Hospitality Enterprises Co. and partner Navarro Lowrey Inc. have revealed plans for a new Marriott Autograph Collection property in West Palm Beach. Concord and Navarro Lowrey will erect the 200-key hotel at the site of a $135 million mixed-use destination being developed by Navarro.

The hotel will be the jewel of Navarro’s 3-acre mixed-use project, which will also feature 255 residential units, 27,000 square feet of retail space, as much as 7,000 square feet of restaurant and al fresco dining space and a public park on the former site of Palm Beach’s City Hall. As part of the six-year-old Autograph Collection, the new hotel will join an international portfolio of distinctive upper-upscale and luxury independent lodging properties.

“This new hotel enriches our shared vision with Concord, to create irresistible places within vibrant communities, and we believe it will be very successful in Downtown West Palm Beach,” Frank Navarro, co-founder & managing principal of Navarro Lowery Inc., said in a prepared statement.

Concord and Navarro’s new hotel will likely receive a warm reception, as the boutique hotel segment is hot and getting hotter across the U.S. “Over the current five-year period, the boutique hotels industry has experienced steady growth as various consumer trends supported demand for industry services,” according to a recent report by multi-industry analysis provider IBISWorld. “[One] consumer trend has been the gravitation toward unique lodging and experiences, which establishments in the boutique hotels industry offer.” Robust growth is expected to continue over the next five years, per the report.

Concord and Navarro Lowrey expect to break ground on their new West Palm Beach hotel in 2017. The project will cost an estimated $49.5 million to develop, as noted in a West Palm Beach City Commission memorandum.