Barlington Group Acquires Tower Hotel Little Havana

MIAMI—The Tower Hotel, which played host to music legends like Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong in its heyday, has a new owner—and that new owner is about to spend multiple millions of dollars to renovate the Little Havana hotel. The deal marks the first time the boutique hotel has traded hands in 60 years.

Miami-based Barlington Group snapped up the hotel for $1.7 million. Located at 1450 Southwest 7th Street, the 50-room Tower Hotel is just steps away from Calle Ocho and adds to Barlington Group’s portfolio of real estate properties in Little Havana and Downtown Miami.

“Little Havana is a cultural tourist attraction,” Martin Pinilla II, managing partner of Barlington Group, tells GlobeSt.com. “Ten years ago Little Havana received about 3% of the Miami’s tourists. Now, we’re getting about 24% of those tourists.”

The Tower hotel is located just off Southwest 8th Street (Calle Ocho), within walking distance of the Tower Theater, Domino Park, and countless shops, art galleries, and restaurants that have opened in recent years. The neighborhood’s revitalization is due in large part to surging residential and commercial activity in nearby Downtown Miami/Brickell, which is generating a positive spillover effect on the Little Havana district.

“Coconut Grove, another tourist area, has 1,000 hotel rooms in its district,” Pinilla says. “There aren’t any hotel rooms in this part of Little Havana, so we feel the neighborhood is poised to receive a hotel. We plan to bring Tower Hotel to its former glory.”

The Tower Hotel was originally built in 1920. At one point in its history it became Riverside Hospital, and later reverted back to a hotel. The hotel has stood during the many transitions of what is now called Little Havana.

“It’s going to take one to tow years to renovate the hotel, depending on how quickly we can get approvals from the city,” Pinilla says. “We want to peel back some of the additions that have been made and bring back some of the splendor of the 1920s architecture, including the elevator and the fire place in the lobby, and the skylights over the stairwell.”

Greg Celentano of Union Street Partners, represented both the buyer, Barlington Group, and the seller, Loujen Realty. David Schechtman heads Loujen Realty.