University of Miami Wants to Get Into the Overtown Hotel Business

The recently completed first phase of the park.

​The University of Miami is getting into the hotel business withplans to construct an 18-story hotel as part of its Life Science and Technology Park. However, given its Overtown location, it will not target regular tourists. The hotel will include conference space and hopes to attract medical conferences and provide rooms for traveling patients in the hospital district.

The recently completed first portion of the Life Science and Technology Park drew the ire of local activists. While construction provided some jobs in the impoverished neighborhood, many believed that the longer term, high-skill medical jobs were out of reach for most local residents. UM and the park's developers, Wexford Equities, plans to make local hiring a commitment. In part because they hope to use federal tax-free bonds that require employing local residents.

According to The Miami Herald, construction of the hotel would create 880 jobs with an average salary of $47,000. Once completed, the hotel would create 430 permanent jobs with an average salary of $55,000.

The 225-room hotel would be about 184,000 square feet with additional 90,000 dedicated to clinical space.

[Herald: UM wants a hotel for research park's second building]

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