Demolishing South Beach History

8/11/2019 Demolishing South Beach History

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MIAMI MIRROR TRUE REFLECTIONS

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Illegal sign at 304 Ocean Drive (321 Ocean Enrique Norten project in upper right hand corner)

Sea Spray Hotel before and after historic preservation

DEMOLISHING SOUTH BEACH HISTORY


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September 17 2014

Filed by David Arthur Walters

THE MIAMI MIRROR

MIAMI BEACHThe City of Miami Beach Board of Historic Preservation has incentivized neglectso that owners and developers may have historical buildings declared unsafe and destroyed,

and then, instead of having them reproduced, allow them to be replaced with structures having

nothing to do with the architectural history of their areas.

Simone Hotel (left) replaced by building in progress (right background), view from demolished Sea Spray Hotel

A case on point is the destruction by neglect of the quaint Art-Deco Simone Hotel that stood at

321 Ocean Drive on the southern end of Miami Beachs South Beach, providing New York

developers David Arditi, Joshua Benaim, and Tim Gordon of Aria Development with a golden

opportunity to grab the last available oceanfront parcel available in that special historic zone,

raise the height limitation of the zone to maximize profits, squeeze two mammoth glass boxes

between two low-rise condominium buildings, and sell the product as heaven-on-earth luxury

condominiums in order to raise deposits from the frothy market and get out quick. The $25

million penthouse shall more than cover the entire $18 million projected cost of the project.

The developers brought in New York/Mexico starchitect Enrique Norten to design and promote

the anti-historical project, dubbed 321 Ocean Enrique Norten. At a meeting held to sell the

neighbors on his clients get-rich-quick plan, the international star confessed that the property

would make a decent, very cheap hotel, but it would make a good residential building. Well,

perhaps $200-400 per night is cheap for him and his ilk. And the definition of good is themaximization of cash flowing into their pockets with a minimum of risk a hotel development,

on the other hand, is a long-term investment to be written off over many years.

Norten was not registered as an architect in Florida, so local licensed architect Luis Revuelta

sealed the final plans. And now Luis Revuelta has been named as the licensed architect for the

development across the street from 321 Ocean Enrique Norten, the old Sea Spray Hotel site at


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304 Ocean Drive. As an inducement to get the increased height zoning for 321 Ocean Drive, the

developers said, We brought inforeign investors to restore the contributing historic buildings

at 304 Ocean Drive and 205 Collins Avenue.

Rendering of glass palace at 321 Ocean Enrique Norten

Annette Schiffler Marciano was the presiding officer or manager of the owners of 304 Ocean

Drive and 205 Collins Avenue: 304 South Beach LLC and 205 Collins LLC. In a 7 July 2011 letter

to the mayor and commissioners, wherein she represented herself as an ardentpreservationist and urged them not to approve of a citywide charter amendment pressed by

Mayor Bower that would require local voters to approve of zoning amendments raising height

requirements, which would allow the development of 321 Ocean Enrique Norten. The

community had been dead set against any further high rises being built along that three-to-four

block oceanfront stretch, so height was limited to 35 feet, then, in 2002, to 75 feet against stiff

opposition. The stretch was fully developed except for 321 Ocean Drive, where the developers

sought a limit of 100 feet towards the rear of the lot for the sake of their most heavenly

customers.

I first acquired the Atlantic Air Apartments located at 205 Collins, Marciano said,currently

undergoing a full renovation. I subsequently acquired the dilapidated contributing property

located at 304-312 Ocean Drive. I will begin a full restoration by year end and return the

property to its original splendor. Please do not kill this project with a sweeping charter

amendment that few property owners and residents are aware is even up for debate.


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The historic hotel at 205 Collins Avenue was left intact and was gloriously renovated into the

Blanc Kara Hotel. Nothing was done as promised at 304-312 Ocean Drive, except, on August 30,

2013, when the assessed value was only $1.463 million: the secret investors graciously flipped it

for $6.300 million, enjoying a $2.260 million profit.

Blanc Kara Hotel

The two parcels aggregated under the address 304 Ocean Drive had been part of the $23

million Ponzi scheme involving 230 investors perpetrated under the rubric of a Delaware

holding companies, Cobalt Multifamily investors, by Ponzi schemers led by one Mark A.

Shapiro, who was convicted of fraud in 2010 and sentenced to 85 years in prison. The

schemers, while falsely advertising their track record, honesty, and integrity, used a Delaware

entity named Simone Beach Club West LLC to hold the Florida property. They claimed they

controlled five properties in Miami Beach including the Simone Hotel or Simone East across

the street, now dubbed 321 Ocean Enrique Norten and owned by a foreign (Delaware) entity,

321 Ocean LLC, managed by a Delaware company unregistered in Florida, 321 Ocean Holding

LLC.

The fraudsters purchased Simone West for $5 million, which the trustee for the duped

investors managed to unload for $4.9 million in 2006. In 2006 an application had been made

before the Historic Preservation Board for approval of the partial demolition and restoration of

the 3-story building remaining on the parcels, and a roof-top addition. The Florida boom went

bust as usual. The so-called Sea Spray Apartments property aka Madison Condo Hotel was

foreclosed on in 2009, picked up for $1 million and sold in 2011 for $4.040 million, and then it

was flipped by unidentified foreign saviors for the $6.300 million.

So it appears that the chicken-feed fraudsters had some foresight in respect to this property, at

leastthe bankruptcy trustee got out with a gain on two other Miami Beach propertiesbut

had not the capital to wait long enough, especially since they were pocketing a few million of

investors money for their personal use, and raising money from new investors to pay the

modest 8% annual return they promised to previous investorspromising outrageous returns

is a sign of fraud although many investors go for it, as did investors in Scott Rothsteins $1.2


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billion structured legal settlement fraud. Well swampy Florida has long been a haven for crooks,

including Charles Ponzi himself.

Sales prices are public record. Why would new investors knowingly pay that sort of profit unless

they were relatively certain they could at least triple it in a short period of time? They had in

mind another anti-historical glass box attributed this time to Florida-licensed architect Luis

Revuelta.

Surprise, surprise, neglect was incentivized yet again on the beach. The developers lobbyist, a

lawyer by the name of Michael J. Marrero, who apparently forgot to register as a lobbyist prior

to the hearing as required by law, went in front of the citys Historic Preservation Board on April

8, 2014, and expressed astonishment, perhaps feigned, for his client, Yair Wolffs Sea Spray

Development LLC, that the Miami-Dade Unsafe Structures Board, at the behest of the Miami

Beach building official, was going to have a hearing on April 23 to declare the building unsafe

because the neighbors had been complaining for years about the overgrowth, feral cats,vagrants, graffiti, and trash around the premises. Presumably the developer, lawyers, and title

company were aware, however, that Notice of Violation BV13000973 was posted by the citys

building department on July 26, 2013, a month before the property was purchased, and that

the property would be declared unsafe if the 40-year Recertification were not had.

My client was taken by surprise by the demolition order, claimed the lawyer in what seemed to

be a case of Please, please, dont throw us into the briar patch, i.e. demolition. No, his clientcertainly did not want to have the historic building demolished. We are not seeking

demolition, that was never our intent, and so on. There is going to be a hearing in front of

the Unsafe Structures Board in two weeks, on April 23, and we do not believe demolition is

going to happen, so we need the Preservation Board to give us more time, we do not have

drawings yet,and so on.


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(L) Michael J. Marrero, Esq. (C) Youseff Hacehemm, Phd, PE, SI (R) Dominique Bailleul

President of YHCE Dr. Youseff Hacehemm, Phd, PE, SI, president of YHCE, the firm that props up

most of the historic buildings under renovation around town, planted the notion that this

building is in pretty bad shape, what with bad concrete, holes in the roof, floors collapsing and

the like. Board member Dominique Bailleul, insurance executive and president of a real estatemanagement company, said he walked by there every day and did not see anything really bad,

like walls collapsing.

(L) Sr. Planner Tackett (R) at 430 20th

St. YHCE shored up, not boarded up, graffiti laden walls

It was remarked that there were 14 historic buildings in woeful shape around town, and that

the city should do something to make owners board and shore them up so that neglect is not

incentivized. Deborah Tackett, who ventured to Miami Beach after working nearly three years

as a key administrator envisioning the future of 40 flooded New Orleans neighborhoods,

responded pensively that the city cannot force owners to do save old buildings, so the Unsafe

Structure Board issues emergency demolition orders. A building official stepped up to the plate

and said he had no objections to continuing the matter as requested so that the developer

could work out something with the county board to save the building.

Ah, what a difference two weeks if not a day makes! The Unsafe Structures Board agreed with

the city building official to stand down, or stand by for the imminent destruction.


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It seems that the developer did not have preservation in mind when the matter came before

the Preservation Board again on July 8, 2014. A presentation was made for the construction of

an illusory two glass boxes on the property, two of them because the planners wanted to

allude to the original gap between the previous, Mediterranean Style hotels, the historic Sea

Spray at 304 Ocean Drive, and the Biltmore at 312 Ocean Drive, which had been demolishedafter a hurricane so that the two lots could be aggregated for developers. The illusions included

the ghosting of the original concrete block structure, in glass. The new glass boxes, like the

Enrique Norten design across the street, in reality had nothing to do with the historic quality of

Ocean Drive on those few blocks.

The original Mediterranean Style hotels, and architect Luis Revueltas glass box

The architectural reality of that stretch of Ocean Drive

More of Luis Revueltas fantastic glassy design

The Mediterranean Style of the two older buildings preceded the Art Deco Style South Beach is

famous for, and in Revueltas design we do see a few allusions to Art Deco, known for


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Streamline corners, ziggurats, cupolas, eyelids shading windows, and raised parapets. The

broad Mediterranean face is there, in transparent glass, and that is an insult to Art Deco and

invasive. Indeed, developers on South Pointe are invading the last of the precious low-rise areas

on the waterfront to profit inordinately from sales to their super-wealthy international

clientele; this is one such travesty blighting Ocean Drive with glass, the other being 321 OceanEnrique Norten. Would even the name be preserved?

So the lobbyist for the developer, the building official for the city, and the countys Unsafe

Structures Board managed to make an agreement for the April 23 meeting on the demolition

order. Surprise, surprise, when the matter came before the Historical Preservation Board again

on July 8, the conclusion had already been foregone, the building would come down, and the

new plan for five luxurious townhouses for the superrich approved. And the requirement made

on a previous developer, that the structure not exceed the structure of the original building,

was stricken.

Of course the engineer for the developer hemmed and hawed again about the dilapidation of

the existing structure that just had to come down. For example, the cement holding the

concrete blocks together had been mixed with salt water, so the rebar will rust, the very thing

that had rendered its sister building at 312 Ocean Drive unsafe, wherefore it had to be torn

down after the hurricane so the developers could aggregate it with 304 Ocean Drive. That

ignores, a member observed, the fact that almost all the old buildings around here have salt

water in the mix.

Frank Del Vecchio, the retired attorney and activist who lived across the street and who had

written the first draft of the spot zoning amendment adopted for the exclusive benefit of the

New York developers and unknown investors in 321 Ocean Enrique Norten next door to him,

where the historic Simone Hotel had been demolished, said he had been waiting 14 years for

the replacement of the blighted building.

He raised the Hotel Noise Scare again. He had reported noise emanating from the Marriott

Hotel a block away across the park from him. The major reason pressed for the spot zoning for

Enrique Nortens architecture at 321 Ocean Drive had been to proh ibit hotels, which would

have accessory uses such as bars and restaurants. However, conditions could have been

stipulated that would prevent hotels from making noise without resorting to a zoningamendment for an already fully developed area, which had been his idea. What was really

wanted was the additional height of a fast-buck condo project, offering a $25 million penthouse

that would more than cover the cost of the entire project.


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Zoning was not needed to prevent accessory uses at 304 Ocean Drive: the board simply set

conditions, to be incorporated in the real estate transaction documents, prohibiting potentially

noisy uses.

(L) Frank Del Vecchio (R) Morris Sunshine

Morris Doctor Sunshine, the citys champion anti-noise activist and official sociologist, was

present as well to complain as well about the vagrants, trash, and feral cats around this

particular propertyhe likes feral cats, he noted. He enthused about the elegant building

that would go up on the site. I am a sociologist, said he, and said he was tempted to

psychoanalyze the board for memorializing features of nondescript buildings, for a tradition of

trying to sustain something when nothing was really there. Forego fictional historicity and go

forward with this proposal, he urged. Do not try to memorize a boxgrafted onto a beautiful

hotel.

(L) Blanc Kara Hotel 205 Collins Avenue (R) now demolished Ocean Spray Hotel 304 Ocean Drive

Well, recall that the Enrique Norten developers said they had brought in foreigners to restore

this old building along with the one around the corner, which was beautifully renovated into

the Blanc Kara Hotel South Beachno, residential use was not insisted on there as it would be

here and across the street, where a low-rise structure could have been approved instead of the

monstrous glass boxes, at 321 Ocean Enrique Norten, squeezed in between two low rises.


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The fact of the matter is that Doctor Sunshine himself lives in a big box down the street, and

that both of these buildings, the one renovated as promised, the other not, are verisimilar to

each other.

But never mind all that, said the chairman, we are ready to certify today that it is appropriate to

tear this one down, and approve the new project with an additional floor.

That is what the board does lately: certify the appropriateness of the destruction of

architectural history. That is why a former board member said, on condition of not being

identified, that there is no such thing as historical preservation on the beach anymore. S/he

also said that it is nearly impossible for the board to be corrupted given its disparate

membership.

The Historic Preservation Board has extraordinary power. In fact, it may certify destruction and

the creation of replacements that have little or nothing to do with history. That is, it is licensed

or has the discretion to destroy history under the pretense of saving history. One may appeal

for reconsideration; fat chance of winning; try the judicial system.

The board has seven members: 2 residents interested in architecture and preservation; 3

licensed architectsan engineer or attorney may substitute for one of them; 1 faculty member

of an architectural department who has experience with historic preservation; 1 professional

who may be unlicensed working in architecture, urban design, or planning.

John Stuart, a tenured full professor in the Department of Architecture within the College of

Architecture & The Arts at Florida International University in Miami, said he was concerned

with the looks of the building.

(L) John Stuart (R) Jo Manning


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The plans are out of context, he observed, examining his notes. The plastic cartoonish

architecture does not achieve the goals. You cannot replace two horizontal buildings with a

glass box. I do not care for facadism, but you could have been more thoughtful in your

approach to the context of the street. The building could be saved. But this is fantastic, and

residential is a good idea.

Jo Manning, ardent preservationist, author of award-winning Regency romances, founder and

director of the Reader's Digest General Books Library for over twenty years, and frequent visitor

to London, deemed the architectural plan brilliant andwonderful, and enthused on how

her neighbors in upscale South Pointe are so active, devoted to having a wonderful quality of

life, and they do it for nothing, and so on.

Jane Gross, a highly respected participant in community affairs, liaison to Art Deco district

investors, and wife of real estate mogul and former city commissioner Saul Gross. This is not

the middle of the Art Deco District. This is not something we want to preserve, she

continued, holding up a picture of the Mediterranean Style buildings. We are lucky to have

high quality architecture. I cannot conjure up any objections. I love the design, both buildings.

Thus goes the destruction of the southern end of the Art Deco district, its Mediterranean

predecessors.
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/MDPL-Newsletter---February-2011.html?soid=1102588435669&aid=phQlJ15igB8http://myemail.constantcontact.com/MDPL-Newsletter---February-2011.html?soid=1102588435669&aid=phQlJ15igB8http://myemail.constantcontact.com/MDPL-Newsletter---February-2011.html?soid=1102588435669&aid=phQlJ15igB8http://myemail.constantcontact.com/MDPL-Newsletter---February-2011.html?soid=1102588435669&aid=phQlJ15igB8


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I am very conflicted with bringing down this historic building, confessed Chairman Herb Sosa,

retailer (Babal), preservationist, community activist, Miami historian, freelance writer, and

editor of Ambiente. This could be brought back if that was the will. But a district is a fabric

made by threads. It is not worth trying to incorporate 304 into the design. The floating windows

are almost cartoony but it is fantastic, and so it went.

(L) Dominique Bailleul (R) Gary Held

Real estate management specialist Dominique Bailleul said he lived in the neighborhood, and

was worried about a potential conflict of interest. City Attorney Gary Held took him aside and

reassured him that he had no such thing.

David S. Wieder, a preeminent attorney, was absent from the meeting, so the vote was 5-1,

with Wyn Graham Bradley, who lectures on architecture at the University of Miami, voting

heroically against it. Thus ended another travesty on historic preservation, and demolition

proceeded September 2014.

(L) Welcome to History (R) Jihadsbuilding next door at 320 Ocean Drive

Another building, similar to the one destroyed, can be seen on the edge of the ruins: 320 Ocean

Drive. Jihad Doujeiji and his crew have been remodeling it for years. Maybe he should let it go

to ruin since neglect has been incentivized by the preservation board.


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What we have in this absurd process may or may not be the result of systemic corruption of the

city planners, attorneys, and commissionersremember, the board members are incorruptible.

It may or may not be institutional blindness. It may or may not be the stupidity of everyone

concerned. It may very well be that everyone concerned are very good people except that they

are lying about historical preservation, or living a fantasy. This project, 321 Ocean Luis Revuelta,is indeed fantastic. The Historical Preservation Board should be renamed the Historical

Progressive Board inasmuch as there is nothing conservative about it lately.

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Demolishing South Beach History