SOUTH FLORIDA-As vacation home investors seek alternative buying opportunities, condominium hotels are becoming more popular in South Florida. Many projects are selling as quickly as they can be developed.

"Although condo hotels have been around a long time the activity in the past three to five years has attracted a lot of attention and this option is now seen as an alternative to condominium, timeshare, fractional and vacation club buyers who are more familiar with the concept," Rob Cornell, Preferred Hotel Group senior vice president of development, tells GlobeSt.com.

Chicago-based Preferred Hotel Group recently signed deals on three condominium hotel projects, two in Florida and one in the Caribbean. They were the Blue Rose in Orlando, the European Club in Hallandale Beach, FL and the Watermark Turks & Caicos in the Caribbean.

The 39-story, 1,292-unit Blue Rose is being developed by CMA Cos. and will offer units that range in size from 595 to 3,000 sf. It is expected to be completed in 2009. Developed by V-Strategic Group, the 30-story European Club will contain 118 condominiums and 135 condo/hotel units. The residential units will sit atop nearly 91,000 sf of class A office space, 12,000 sf of retail and bank space as well as a restaurant. Groundbreaking is expected in the first half of 2007 with project completion expected in late 2008. "Hallandale Beach is undergoing a profound transformation and is in need of quality hotels," says V-Strategic Group President Juan Carlos Ventura.

The three deals follow the opening of two condo hotel projects that have opened as Preferred Hotels & Resorts, the SoHo Metropolitan in Toronto and Marco Beach Ocean Resort in Marco Island, FL. "When we opened the SoHo Metropolitan in 2003, the condominium hotel was a novel concept in Canada," says Metropolitan Hotels Vice President Henry Wu.

Even before construction started on the 260-unit Sage Resort in Orlando, developers booked $75 million in pre-construction sales for the planned 10-story, $104 million hotel. Groundbreaking is set for year-end.

Construction started earlier this year on the 54-story EPIC Residences & Hotel at 300 Biscayne Boulevard Way in Miami. The project is being developed by locally-based developers CMC Group, Lionstone Development and Ponte Gadea Group. The architect on the project is Luis Revuelta, of Revuelta Vega Leon. The project will contain both condominiums and hotel rooms. The hotel will occupy 15 of the floors and contain 400 rooms and will be managed by San Francisco-based Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants.