Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Bahia Mar deal would tie up public land for next century
Developer wants to build condos
FORT LAUDERDALE — Plans to overhaul the legendary Bahia Mar resort and marina have reignited a furious debate about devoting prime public land to yet more development on a congested barrier island.
A developer wants to lease the land — 39 acres owned by the city — for up to 100 years in order to build condos and a sea of other properties, replacing the aging Bahia Mar hotel. Opponents say the move would hand over one of Fort Lauderdale’s most prized properties to a —private business for the next century.
“We can’t go around giving away public land in perpetuity,” said resident Marilyn Mammano, a member of the citizen group Lauderdale Tomorrow. “You give that land away for 100 years, it may as well be private land. The city should not be giving up its public lands for private use.”
Developer Jimmy Tate has already received the city’s permission to build seven 11-story towers with 651 rental apartments, a 256-room hotel to replace the existing DoubleTree by Hilton, restaurants, a marina village with shops and outdoor dining, a grocery store and underground parking garage. But he and his team want a new 50-year lease with an option for a 50-year extension to pave the way for condos instead of apart
ments.
He contends that condos cannot succeed without a guaranteed future for buyers. State law requires at least a 50-year lease to build condos.
Bahia Mar, home to the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, sits half a mile south of Las Olas Boulevard at 801 Seabreeze Blvd., nestled between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean. It’s history is storied.
In 1839, long before it was Bahia Mar, it was an Army fort. By the mid-1800s it became a house of refuge for shipwrecked sailors. The Coast Guard built a station in the 1920s and stayed for more than 20 years.
The people of Fort Lauderdale became the owners in 1947 when the federal government sold the parcel to the city for $600,000.
The notion of turning such a priceless slice of public land over to the private sector has riled residents as far back as 1962, when commissioners approved a 50-year lease in a no-bid deal critics at the time called a giveaway.
The lease was later extended to 2062 — another 50 years.
The lease, which has changed hands several times over the years, was sold in 2014 to a group headed by developer Tate. The group, Rahn Bahia Mar, pays the city $1.58 million a year to lease the land.
In December 2017, after years of controversy and debate, Tate and his team won approval from a prior commission to begin an ambitious $500 million makeover of the waterfront property.
But the project — which had one lone “no” vote cast by commissioner Dean Trantalis, now mayor — never broke ground.
Soon after Trantalis was elected mayor in March 2018, he says Tate met with him to talk about getting a 50-year lease with a 50-year extension so he could build condos.
“You can’t build condos in the state of Florida unless you have at least a 50-year lease,” Trantalis said. “I told them I was not in favor of that unless they reduced the scale of the project. I would agree to it if there were fewer buildings and more open space.”
Now Tate is back, intent on negotiating another 50-year lease with an option for a 50-year extension so he can build condos instead of rental apartments.
Tate could not be reached for comment, and his attorney declined to comment.
Blindsided by news
Trantalis and three commissioners — Steve Glassman, Heather Moraitis and Ben Sorensen — say they were blindsided to find out through a resident’s public records request that City Attorney Alain Boileau has been in talks with Tate and his attorney about the new lease.
Boileau says the developer presented him with an amended lease over the summer. He has been reviewing it for legal sufficiency with the help of outside counsel.
Some are gearing up for another firestorm as word spreads of Tate’s efforts to renegotiate the lease.
Mary Fertig, a founding member of Lauderdale Tomorrow and a longtime activist, lives across the Intracoastal from Bahia Mar in the Idlewyld neighborhood.
“Bahia Mar is unquestionably the single greatest asset of the city,” said Fertig, who led opposition to Tate’s previous plans. “The Bahia Mar saga was one of the most explosive issues to hit Fort Lauderdale in decades. For me, the core issue is what’s going to happen to Bahia Mar.”
The city bought the land in 1947 — land that has been in private hands for nearly six decades.
“Bahia Mar is our crown jewel and the fact that the city could give it away” by granting a 100-year lease has people outraged, Fertig said.
Tempers do tend to get triggered when developers come to call with plans in hand for the Bahia Mar parcel.
Tate was not the only developer with grand plans for the parcel.
In 2010, LXR Resorts pitched a plan to build high-rise condos and a fivestar Waldorf-Astoria hotel. They spent years winning approval for a project they didn’t build.
Along came Tate, who initially wanted to build two 39-story condo towers. Commissioners rejected that plan in February 2016, sending him back to the drawing board. He came back with a new plan for two 29-story towers, but withdrew the proposal amid intense public opposition.
’Not a good deal’
Jack McCabe, a real estate analyst based in Deerfield Beach, questioned why the city has not tried to hike the lease payments paid by the developer, which amount to $1.58 million a year.
“That’s an incredible deal for the developer,” McCabe said. “It really should be eight to 10 times higher. Beachfront is at a premium. And in Fort Lauderdale in that location, you could make a strong case that that land has become very valuable.”
Sorensen echoed that sentiment.
“We’re not getting a good deal,” he said. “I say it all the time.”
Sorensen says he has no interest in extending the lease another 50 years or more.
“Anytime you have public land there’s heightened scrutiny,” he said. “There’s a sensitivity to overdevelopment. People are worried about the impact of traffic on the barrier island.”
But the bigger question, Sorensen says, is what will become of this choice property.
“It’s a beautiful and critical part of the beach and vital to the boat show,” he said. “That’s why people are so passionate about this.”
The idea of getting the city to buy out the lease has been bandied about over the years, Fertig said. But no one has said how much it would cost.
Glassman said he asked the city auditor just days ago if buying out the lease was feasible.
“He said it would be astronomical,” Glassman said.
There’s one other alternative: Leave things as they are.
“There’s only 42 years left on the lease,” Trantalis said. “And then we own everything.”