Roughly a year after an attempt to build a Margaritaville hotel fell apart amid allegations of fraud, a developer has again proposed to construct the resort at Riviera Beach’s Marina Village.
Robert Sonnenblick, chairman of Pacific Palisades, California-based, confirmed he is among four development teams that have proposed to build on 12 acres of publicly owned land near the Intracoastal Waterway, about 1.5 miles north of the Port of Palm Beach.
The three other bids submitted prior to the city’s June 27 deadline are from the Related Group’s affordable housing arm Related Urban in partnership with Tezral Partners; Forest Development; and Bear Atlantic Group, according to the city’s purchasing department and sources familiar with the matter. Further details on those three bids in response to the city’s “request for qualifications,” could not be immediately obtained. Related Group and Related Urban, which declined to comment, already plan to build residential projects elsewhere at Marina Village.
Sonnenblick said the first part of his two-phase proposal will consist of an eight-story Compass by Margaritaville hotel with 150 rooms, a 900-space parking garage, five restaurant and retail spaces, and an eight-story condo with 40 moderately priced condominiums with direct water views. The second phase will include a second 150-room hotel that has yet to be branded and a 15-story tower with 150 condos. The project will be designed by national architecture firm Leo A. Daly and Boston-based general contractor Suffolk Construction, Sonnenblick added.
“But all of this [happens] only if the city selects us,” Sonnenblick said via email.
Margaritaville Enterprises LLC, a resort company founded by the late singer Jimmy Buffett, did not return a request for comment. Besides franchising hotels, the company also runs the Margaritaville at Sea cruise line, which has a terminal at the Port of Palm Beach.
In July 2023, Atlanta-based APD Solutions, Sonnenblick Development and West Palm Beach-based Tezral Partners proposed building a 150-room Compass by Margaritaville hotel along with 225,000 square feet of retail, a parking garage, and other features. But by 2024, Tezral Partners was pursuing its own project for the site, while Sonnenblick pulled out of the deal, according to records obtained by WPTV.
Then, in November 2024, the deal was put on hold after Margaritaville informed the city that APD Solutions had fraudulently claimed it secured its approval, WFLX reported. Margaritaville sent a cease and desist letter to APD Development CEO Vaughn Irons, declaring that a letter it sent to Riviera Beach was “fraudulent” and deleted “references to Sonnenblick Development without its authorization.” An attorney for APD apologized to Margaritaville, which explained that his client accidentally circulated a draft letter.
The 12 acres near the Intracoastal Waterway are part of a 90-acre assemblage that Riviera Beach wants redeveloped as part of its Marina Village Master Plan, which aims to bring residential and additional commercial development to a property that now consists of a marina, parking lots, a meeting hall and the Rifiki Tiki outdoor restaurant and bar.
As part of that master plan, Tezral Partners is partnering with Related Urban to build Residences at Marina Village, a 149-unit mixed-income apartment project that is expected to break ground later this year on a 2.4-acre site just south of East 12th Street between Broadway and Avenue C. Nearby, at 1300 Broadway, The Related Group, BH Group and Tezral are slated to build Gallery at Marina Village, a 20-story tower with 418 market-rate apartments.
Forest Development, led by Peter Baytarian, has also been active in the area. He plans to build Oculina, which will consist of two 25-story condo towers, at 3700 Broadway in Riviera Beach. Oculina will be just south of where Baytarian and developer Dan Kodsi are building a pair of 24-story condo towers, called Nautilus 220, in neighboring Lake Park. Baytarian has also bid to pay $3.5 million for 2.2-acres of land at 1851 Broadway where he wants to build a $325 million project with 450 apartments.
