Aztec Group Inc. secured a $19.15 million loan for a new Fort Lauderdale hotel that will open on the site of the former Escape hotel after reconstruction that will keep the original 1949 facade.

The two-story, 96-room hotel is part of the larger Gale Boutique Hotel & Residences project that includes a 12-story, 129-unit residential development.

The condominium, which is finished and sold out, and the hotel are on 2.7 acres bounded by North Birch Road, Bayshore Drive and Riomar Street on the barrier island.

This was the second loan Aztec senior managing director Howard Taft and executive vice president Charles Penan secured for this project as they previously secured $35.6 million for the condo construction.

The hotel loan closed Dec. 21 and the condo loan in August 2016.

Dallas-based Hall Structured Finance issued both loans, with the hotel loan covering 75 percent of construction and the condo loan covering 60 percent of that construction, according to Penan.

Securing construction loans for hotels, especially boutique hotels like this one, has grown more difficult in South Florida since many lenders have halted this line of financing.

But in this case, the condo segment of the project helped on the hotel loan, Penan said.

“Because the condominium was substantially sold when we closed the loan on the hotel and it's 100 percent sold now, (it) adds a destination and viability to the entire project, and some of the costs were spread over both. That's how we made the project palatable to this lender,” Penan said.

The hotel and condos will share amenities like parking and a pool, he added.

The hotel, which is set to open in spring 2019, will be at 2900 Riomar St. west of the W Fort Lauderdale, and the condominium is at 401 Bayshore Drive.

Both are blocks from the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean.

Greenberg Traurig shareholder Ricardo Fraga in Miami represented Newgard.