Currents July 2019 July | Page 8

8 Currents July 2019 > continued from page 7 might be filled with a health-food restaurant; and on the ground floor of the parking garage, four spaces for restaurant and retail use directly across the street from the future Hilton hotel. Another city project that will complement what is happening on the beachside is the enhancement of the Atlantic Boulevard Bridge that got underway last month. In addition, a private developer is building a new waterfront dining and retail complex on South Riverside Drive, at the southeast corner of the Atlantic Boulevard Bridge. Monday, July 1, 2019 Hilton The Pompano Beach Fishing Village will be home to a dual-branded Hilton hotel. The five-story hotel will be built on what is currently a city-owned parking lot, just south of the new Pier Parking Garage. One section of the L-shaped building will be a Hilton Home2Suites, offering 90 rooms that have kitchens and work areas, and are well-suited for families on extended stays; the other section will be a Tru by Hilton, offering 60 smaller, streamlined rooms geared toward travelers with a “millennial mindset.” The Tru focus is on the large colorful lobby designed to be a social hub, with zones for eating, playing, working and lounging, and lots of charging stations for tech devices. Designated pet-friendly rooms will be offered by Home2Suites. The large overhang of the hotel’s entrance will serve as a deck with a rectangular saline swimming pool, a hot tub and cabanas. The pool will be main- tained with natural minerals instead of chemicals, which is in keeping with the Home2 Suites commit- ment to sustainability. The hotel will also have a rooftop deck with 360-degree views of the ocean, the pier, the Hillsboro Lighthouse and the Intracoastal Waterway. There are plans to have a bar on the rooftop deck. The Hilton will be the first new hotel in the area since the opening of the Sands Harbor Resort & Marina in 1965. How the expansion will effect property values in Palm-Aire is a guess. Florida as a whole is growing again. This is juxta- posed with Tallahassee’s blockage of local control to force developers to mitigate the environmental impact of land transformation as well as the impact continued on page 9 >