A developer won city approvals to replace an aging, single-story motel on U.S. Highway 1 in Dania Beach with a six-story, 79-room hotel that would affiliate with an extended-stay hotel chain.
The Dania Beach City Commission voted 3-2 last week to approve a site plan for the hotel development, plus two zoning variances related to trees and landscaping, two variations from design standards related to parking and upper-level setbacks from the street, and a special exception to allow a hotel use in the development site’s zoning district.
A company controlled by Sasi Haham, the Hollywood-based developer, paid $695,000 in 2015 to acquire the one-story, 12-room Stay Inn Motel at 380 South Federal Highway (U.S. 1) in Dania Beach, according to state records and Broward County property records. The motel was built in 1949, records show.
Haham told city commissioners at their April 22 meeting that he has been trying to redevelop the Stay Inn Motel since he acquired it 10 years ago. He said he would affiliate the unnamed six-story, 79-room hotel with an extended-stay chain such as Holiday Inn Express. Haham is working with Fort Lauderdale-based architecture firm Studio Patrick Soares on the hotel development.
“As a former hotel GM for Marriott, I really implore you to find a very good [hotel chain] flag for this property, because that makes a big difference on the quality of person that we’re going to have at that hotel,” Dania Beach commissioner Luis Rimoli told Haham during the commission meeting before voting in favor of the hotel development.
“If you place a Motel 6 flag on that … it’s not going to attract the right people,” Rimoli said. “I’m going to be watching this, and I’m going to be your worst nightmare if this flag is not someone that is really top-notch and professional.”
Building heights up to four stories are allowed in the Dania Beach zoning district that includes the Stay Inn Motel site. But Haham is entitled to build a six-story hotel because the hotel has an environmentally sustainable design that would qualify for LEED Silver level certification under the National Green Building Standard.
The city no longer offers the sustainable development incentive to exceed the standard four-story limit on building height for the Stay Inn Motel site, but the incentive was available when Haman filed an application in 2022 to redevelop the motel site, Viviana Batista, planning and zoning manager of Dania Beach, told the commission last week.
Dania Beach Vice Mayor Marco Salvino, who voted in favor of the six-story hotel development, said it is too tall, because the development site is just west of a low-rise neighborhood with single-family homes. But he said a rejection of the hotel development could trigger a successful lawsuit against the city by Haham.
Dania Beach Mayor Joyce L. Davis voted against the six-story hotel development because of its height, but acknowledged a need to redevelop the area encompassing the 76-year-old Stay Inn Motel.
“I’ve driven through that neighborhood, and there’s a lot of concern with what’s going on at that motel right now,” Davis said. “There needs to be an improvement. What is there now is not the kind of Dania Beach we’re moving toward.”
Commissioner Lori Lewellen, who voted to approve the six-story hotel development, said tenants of the Royal Palm Apartments one block north of the Stay Inn Motel have complained about it for years.
“One of the biggest complaints that they’ve had is about the crime, the drugs, the things that are going on there that are unsavory,” Lewellen said, “to the point that I’ve worked with BSO [the Broward Sheriff’s Office] … to see what they could do to maybe improve the environment. But they can’t be there 24/7, and there are issues in that neighborhood.”
She said city commissioners have prioritized property upgrades along U.S. 1, also known as Federal Highway, and that Haham’s hotel development is a step in the right direction.
“It will bring people in who actually want to be part of this community, as opposed to driving through the community and being a little confused, especially when you see something like Dania Pointe,” Lewellen said, referring to the retail-heavy, mixed-use development along I-95 owned and operated by Kimco Realty Corp. Kimco opened the first phase of Dania Pointe in 2018.
Dania Beach, the oldest city in Broward County, was incorporated under its original name, Dania, in 1904.
