Old Hotel Site to Become Eight‑Story Apartments
- A demolished motel site on Federal Highway will be replaced by a new eight‑story apartment building called The Cove. - Named The Cove, the project will rise eight stories on the hotel's west side just north of Sunrise Boulevard. - City planners approved the replacement amid calls for more housing and neighborhood change (sun-sentinel.com).
A cleared hotel site at 1055 N. Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale is set to become The Cove, an eight-story apartment building. (sun-sentinel.com) The project sits on the west side of Federal Highway just north of Sunrise Boulevard, on land that recently held the Link Hotel. City records from an earlier filing described the property as a 145-room hotel at that address. (sun-sentinel.com) (webdocs.fortlauderdale.gov) The developer is Affiliated Development, a Fort Lauderdale-based firm that has been pursuing the site under the name The Cove. Design material from RINKA places the project at the Federal Highway-Sunrise Boulevard crossroads and describes it as a residential building. (sun-sentinel.com) (rinka.com) The approval came through Fort Lauderdale’s Development Review Committee, a staff body that reviews site plans and includes representatives from building, engineering, transportation, police and planning divisions. The city posts those committee agendas and comments as part of the public record. (fortlauderdale.gov 1) (fortlauderdale.gov 2) The Cove is moving ahead as Fort Lauderdale weighs how to add apartments along commercial corridors while rents stay high across South Florida. The state’s Live Local Act has become a central tool in that shift by giving qualifying housing projects a faster, mostly administrative path. (sun-sentinel.com) (broward.us) Under the Live Local Act, developers can override some local limits on height, density and use if at least 40% of units are set aside as affordable for 30 years for households earning up to 120% of area median income. Broward County’s 2025 median income was listed at $96,200, putting that ceiling at $115,440. (broward.us 1) (broward.us 2) That law has also drawn pushback in Fort Lauderdale, where Mayor Dean Trantalis told the Sun Sentinel in February 2025 that it stripped cities of local zoning control. Neighborhood critics told Broward.US the same law could put taller buildings in places residents never expected them. (broward.us) Affiliated Development has said time savings are a big part of the appeal. Jeff Burns, the company’s founder and chief executive, told Broward.US in 2025 that The Cove was expected to break ground in early 2026 and finish in early 2028. (broward.us) For now, the change is visible in one block: a demolished motel parcel on a major corridor is being remade for apartments, with city staff approval already in hand. (sun-sentinel.com)
