Tutor Perini to See Double in Fort Lauderdale

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

It’s a two-in-one for the upcoming hotel development in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., as Tutor Perini Building Corp., a subsidiary of civil and building construction company Tutor Perini Corp., has just won a contract to construct a dual-branded hotel in the city. The firm will erect the Tribute Portfolio and Element by Westin Hotel on a site downtown, adding 323 guestrooms to the city’s hospitality market.

Wurzak Hotel Group and DoveHill tapped Tutor Perini for the project, which will yield a 24-story tower at the intersection of US1 and 3rd Street in the city’s popular Flagler Village district. A total of 209 guestrooms will operate as the Tribute Portfolio, a newly launched brand by Starwood Hotels & Resorts. And the Element, Starwood’s eco-friendly brand, will offer 114 rooms. The upscale property will also feature approximately 15,000 square feet of high-quality, ground-level retail space and roughly 7,500 square feet of state-of-the-art meeting accommodations.

This isn’t Tutor Perini’s first time at the dual-branded rodeo. In March 2015, the firm secured a $239 million contract to build the new W and Element hotel project in Philadelphia. “We have a proven track record for completing large, complex projects, particularly in the hospitality market, on time and on budget,” Jorge Casado, vice president of investor relations at Tutor Perini, told CPE.

Tutor Perini is on track to complete construction of the Tribute/Element hotel in the fall of 2017, and the hotel tower will likely open to a highly receptive audience. According to a report released by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau in October 2015, the Fort Lauderdale/Broward County area is experiencing a boom in travel and hospitality-related construction and investment, due in no small part to a notable increase of affluent visitors.