Plan for Hollywood condo tower heads for showdown
HOLLYWOOD — A new beachfront condo would be built on taxpayer-owned land, rising 365 feet into the sky — seven times what the current code allows — if commissioners say yes to a 99-year deal with a Miami-based developer.
Critics hate the idea, warning against what they call a land giveaway that would haunt residents who haven’t even been born yet.
Supporters say the 4-acre parcel less than a mile south of Hollywood Boulevard would undergo a welcome metamorphosis under the watch of the Related Group, one of the region’s best-known developers.
The land, at 1301 S. Ocean Drive, is currently valued at $35 million.
Part of the deal: The developer would build a new park and two-story community center next to the condo tower, replacing tiny Harry Berry Park and the aging Hollywood Beach Culture & Community Center at 1301 South Ocean Drive.
Mayor Josh Levy says the deal would give what he called dormant city properties an upgrade while boosting the city’s property tax base.
“That’s the upside for the city,” Levy said. “A better community center and library and park — and the financial contribution the developer would pay to the city.”
The new condo tower would have more than 200 condo units selling for anywhere from $1 million to $2.1 million, the developer says.
The project would be five to seven times taller and have more than double the units allowed under current code, but is exempt from the rules since it would be built on public land.
Critics are warning against a land giveaway that would put the city in the condo business at the end of a century-long lease.
“What people are most upset about is you’re taking public land and putting a private condo on it,” Hollywood activist Cat Uden said. “A lot of people are skeptical about whether the city will be able to negotiate a good deal. If it’s a 99-year lease it’s not us that will have to deal with it. It would be our kids or grandkids.”
The initial proposal, still being hammered out behind the scenes, called for Related Group to pay Hollywood the same $400,000 in annual rent for the entire 99 years of the lease, or $39.6 million. In addition, Hollywood would be paid an estimated $3.4 million from condo sales; $1.7 million in yearly property taxes; and 30 percent in gross revenues from a 5,000-square-foot restaurant as participation rent.
In return, the developer would give Hollywood up to $35 million upfront, a mix of cash and public improvements that include revamping the nearby park; building the new community center; extending the beachfront pathway known as the Broadwalk another block and half; and building a three-story parking garage with 109 public spaces on the ground floor.
Hollywood has been working on the deal since June 2020, when the Related Group submitted an unsolicited proposal to develop the land.
City commissioners have the
final say on whether to move forward with the deal.
On Wednesday, they’ll get an update from staff, but a formal vote is likely months away, Levy says.
The project, if approved, could break ground as soon as next year and be finished by 2024. The tower would be built as close to A1A as possible to help prevent shading on the sand, the developer says.
In the meantime, at least one local attorney is raising questions about the legality of the proposal.
“They’re about to make a monumental decision giving away public land on the beach without a written legal analysis that explains how they are authorized to do this particular deal,” said Richard Grosso, a Plantation attorney representing Uden and the Broward Sierra Club on a pro bono basis. “But even if they can do this, should they when South Florida is already struggling with sea-level rise and preventing flooding? It seems pretty tone deaf considering the realities of what we’re dealing with in South Florida.”
Uden also urges city commissioners to consider the threat of sea-level rise before they vote on the deal.
“If you look at the sea-level rise maps for 2060 in that area of the city, it doesn’t look good,” she said. “Are we just pretending that sea-level rise doesn’t exist? It just seems really crazy to me. They’re going to put all these residents in the path of storms and storm surge.”