By Eric Curl / Savannahagenda.com
Aug. 23, 2022 – When traveling, my appetite for learning about local development issues tends to outweigh any yearning to try the local cuisine or visit the town’s tourist hot spots. (This, admittedly may be worth mentioning to a therapist.) While on a recent trip in South Florida, I couldn’t help but notice the deteriorating historic buildings and construction projects dotting Miami’s North Beach as I biked along the the coastal roadways. The sight of scaffolding surrounding mid-century high-rise hotels, with the occasional three-level inn standing tall in between, reminded me of Savannah’s historic structures that are in need of restoration amid the new buildings and construction activity, but with whiffs of saltwater in the air. My nonchalant attitude towards the aging architecture stopped at 8777 Collins Avenue. The fenced off concrete pit is where 98 residents of the Champlain Towers South condo complex lost their lives when the 12-story building collapsed in June 2021. The tragedy looms in this community, as once beautiful buildings grow older and older. Their wrinkles apparent. Pull the cord or not? Is resuscitation possible? And how could the disaster have been prevented? The debates about demolition, restoration and redevelopment sound all too familiar.
9149 Collins
A historic villa in the town of Surfside (just north of Miami Beach) is expected to become an exclusive luxury project by 2023. The $200 million development includes the restoration of a historic two-story building constructed in 1936 that was the community’s first apartment house, as reported by Miami’s Local News 10.
However, Surfside is facing a lawsuit over its approval of the planned 11-story oceanfront development next to the aging Carlisle on the Ocean condos, reflecting fears of construction near old buildings that have rippled through the community in the year since the deadly collapse of Champlain Towers South about four blocks away, as reported by The Real Deal in June.
Champlain Towers site
On June 24, 2021, Champlain Towers South, a 12-floor condominium in Surfside, partially collapsed, resulting in 98 deaths. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is now working to find out the cause.
Family members of those who died recently marked the one-year anniversary of the disaster, still seeking answers as to why the building suddenly imploded and crashed to the ground, as reported by the Washington Post in June. In May, state lawmakers passed some condo safety reforms. The legislation requires statewide recertification of condos over three stories tall. Recertification would be required after 30 years, or 25 if the building is within 3 miles of the coast, and every 10 years after, as reported by News4Jax in June.
The grand Deauville Beach Resort
The Deauville Beach Resort played host to the Beatles, Frank Sinatra and John F. Kennedy. But it has been deemed unsafe after years of neglect, as reported by the New York Times in January.
The Beatles’ live “Ed Sullivan Show” performance was broadcast to 70 million people from the hotel’s Napoleon Ballroom, helping to cement the Beatles’ extraordinary popularity in the United States, and the Deauville’s status as a South Florida cultural landmark.
Built in 1957, the demolition-bound resort’s future will now be determined by voters in November, when they will vote whether to support an upzoning for the site allowing for an increased scale for the planned 175-hotel room, 150-condo unit development at the site, as reported by as reported by The Real Deal in June.
9340 Collins Avenue
Following the demolition of the surrounding structures, this historic Bougainvillea Apartment building in Surfside (just north of Miami Beach) is all that remains of a 2.9-acre site, where a developer plans to construct a 3-story, 200-room hotel with three rooftop pools, as reported by The Real Deal in March.
7315 Collins
In case you were wondering, I did get to taste some delicious Colombian food at Sabor Playa in Surfside, where I had a sidewalk table to myself away from the crowds of South Beach. With temperatures in the lower 90s, I dined on a delicious plate of hot-sauce drenched picada and cold beer while catching the occasional scent of spray paint as a business owner covered up graffiti outside his storefront next door. It was bliss.
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