MIAMI— A developer is forecasting high occupancy at a hotel planned next to Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport and scouting similar locations. The Morlin Group of Miami plans to break ground in the fourth quarter on the 107-room Holiday Inn Express in a $10 million project scheduled for completion in late 2006. It would be the first hotel near the airport and the westernmost hotel in the Kendall area. The hotel will have about 40,000 room nights a year and 20,000 to 30,000 should be filled by business from the airport alone, according to the company. In addition to flight schools, fractionally owned private planes and corporate planes for south Miami-Dade companies, the Kendall-Tamiami airport gets many visitors during NASCAR races at the nearby Homestead International Speedway. The approved zoning limited the hotel to five stories on 2.2 acres to avoid incoming aircraft. Morlin also owns an industrial/office park across from the airport and the property fronting 137th Avenue next to the proposed hotel. It plans to submit a zoning plan for a 100,000-square-foot shopping center there to break ground in two years, according to the company.
