Jan. 30–FORT LAUDERDALE — A $400 million plan to redevelop the Bahia Mar resort and marina and erect a pair of 39-story condos would blow the lid off a 24-story height limit put in place more than a decade ago for construction on the beach.
City commissioners face big decisions Tuesday about the city-owned property south of Las Olas Boulevard that could redefine the beach's skyline with its tallest buildings yet.
Developers promise to transform the tired-looking hotel and marina site, which is largely walled off from the public except for a week each year when it hosts the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show.
Their plan has a permanent home for the boat show, a grocery store and a promenade for people to stroll along the Intracoastal Waterway. It includes waterfront restaurants and a "fishing village" of stores and eateries along State Road A1A. It would provide millions of dollars in higher lease payments to the city.
But to make those amenities financially feasible, developer Jimmy Tate of Rahn Bahia Mar LLC said he needs every floor of those skyscrapers — and the income from the 525 condominium units they would hold.
Commissioner Dean Trantalis said the size of the towers should be reduced substantially, and Mayor Jack Seiler thinks the buildings need to be lowered at least "a few stories."
The height issue goes back at least two decades, when Fort Lauderdale was busy transforming its beach from a Spring Break magnet of drunken revelry to an upscale family-friendly resort.
While Beach Club was being built in Hallandale Beach with a 50-story and two 43-story towers, and Hollywood had its 40-story Trump Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale was trying to keep growth down to earth.
Commissioners wanted visitors and residents to enjoy the city's unspoiled beachfront without a concrete canyon lurking behind them or casting a shadow on their blankets.
The city put a hold on new beach construction and eventually lowered the maximum allowed height from 300 feet to 240 feet, roughly lowering it from 30 stories to 24 stories.
The action was spurred by people angered by the commission's approval of the Palms II condominiums, a 32-story pink tower with a 31-story sister about a mile north of Sunrise Boulevard. Palms II is currently the tallest building on the city's barrier island.
"That really seemed to appease the folks that lived there who feared the beach was going to be overdeveloped in some massive way," said former Commissioner Tim Smith, a driving force behind the limitations.
The city has generally kept to its new limit over the last decade, welcoming 24-story additions like the W Hotel, St. Regis Resort & Residences and the Conrad Hotel (formerly Trump International). There have been exceptions, among them the 29-story Las Olas Beach Club just north of Las Olas Boulevard.
The Bahia Mar proposal would dwarf them all.
The nearby Bahia Cabana has its own development plans. A conceptual drawing for the project shows a high-rise similar in size to the Bahia Mar towers, although developers say no decision has been made yet on its height.
"I'm not opposed to another development," said Bill James of Harbour Inlet Association near both projects. "I am opposed to something that dramatically changes the character of the beach, and I think 39 stories does that."
At Bahia Mar, the proposed towers are more than triple the 12-story height limit under its current zoning. They're also well above the 26-story hotel the commission had endorsed in a prior plan by the Blackstone Group, which had the lease on the 39-acre site before selling it to Tate and his partners in 2014.
Commissioners say they're dealing with a balancing act. They are afraid the boat show could pack up and leave town once its current lease ends in 2020, so they want the 30-year boat show lease that the new Bahia Mar lease would guarantee. And they've long wanted to open up the property and its spectacular water views to the public.
They're trying to figure out if the condo towers are an acceptable compromise and if the city is getting enough money from the new lease. But they don't have the leverage they would like because the developers still have 46 years left on their current lease and could just continue making a tidy profit off the hotel and marina without doing much else to the site.
"Everybody has wanted to see this property improved," Seiler said. "Everybody recognizes that something better has to be done."
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