By AARON LEIBOWITZ, Miami Herald
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The long run of the Deauville Beach Resort site in Miami Beach sits in limbo after voters shot down a ballot query Tuesday, rejecting a vision from Miami Dolphins owner and billionaire developer Stephen Ross to construct a luxury hotel and condo tower taller than what current regulations allow.
The historic hotel remains to be set to be imploded Sunday morning, Miami Beach spokesperson Melissa Berthier said.
But representatives for Ross were mum Wednesday about whether he might still buy the property, which is owned by the Meruelo family that has sparred with the town over hundreds of thousands of dollars in code violations. The hotel fell into disrepair and has been shuttered since an electrical fire in 2017.
“While we’re upset with the final result, we all know North Beach deserves an economic engine, not an eyesore,” a spokesperson for the ballot measure campaign said in an announcement. “We appreciate the tremendous support we received from 1000’s who backed an actual vision for a greater North Beach and still consider there’s a brighter future ahead.”
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The spokesperson didn’t reply to a follow-up query about whether Ross still intends to purchase the property and possibly construct there. His plan for the location included two towers designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry.
“They’d should work out, given the worth, to what extent it is smart to construct,” said Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, who supported the ballot query. “I don’t think we’ll get a Gehry constructing there.”
Gelber pitched the proposal to residents as an easy selection between an empty lot and a world-class development that will bring revenue to the North Beach neighborhood.
“It shouldn’t have been a contest, frankly, since it’s a selection between a possible empty area or a Frank Gehry constructing,” he said. “I don’t think we could have given voters a greater possibility than that.”
But opponents of the measure — which might have increased the location’s allowable floor-area ratio to make way for a 375-foot condo tower in an area with a current 200-foot height limit — said any developer of the location should work inside existing zoning regulations.
Historic preservation advocates also said Ross’ project wouldn’t have paid proper homage to the design and history of the Deauville, which was inbuilt 1957 and famously hosted a Beatles performance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964. Town’s historic preservation board could have a probability to weigh in on, and potentially reject, any future development at the location.
The ballot query’s failure, with 53% of voters opposed, was striking given the imbalance in funding between the campaigns for and against it.
Ross, the chairman and majority owner of real estate firm Related, poured almost $1.9 million right into a PAC that was supporting the ballot measure, records show.
A political committee opposing the measure, Save Miami Beach, raised lower than $30,000, mostly from local historic preservation groups.
Miami Beach voters also handed developers a defeat on the polls Tuesday on two proposed 99-year leases of city-owned parking lots near Lincoln Road, rejecting plans for high-end office space that proponents said would help diversify the town’s tourist-heavy economy.
Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, a city commissioner who spearheaded a campaign against the Lincoln Road items and in addition opposed the Deauville measure, celebrated the final result in an email to residents Wednesday.
“Miami Beachers love their sunny beach, and additionally they loved the Deauville,” she wrote. “Once you don’t follow our laws and our rules, and you are trying to purchase your way around them, the people will stop you.”
Rosen Gonzalez added that she and others will now “demand that portions of the Deauville are replicated,” and that “regardless of the owners wish to construct is in scale with the remaining of the neighborhood.”
The Deauville’s 17-story hotel tower is about to be demolished shortly after 8 a.m. Sunday.
Demolition crews began tearing down the lower portion of the constructing last month. Officials first accomplished asbestos removal from the shuttered hotel, which allowed demolition of the constructing’s pool, pool deck, ballrooms and lobby to start.
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