After nearly seven months of negotiating, a final agreement on the fate of the Jackie Gleason Theater may be near.

The Miami Beach Finance and Citywide Projects Committee met Wednesday afternoon to go over a list of 29 terms in a tentative agreement for the Gleason to be renovated and run by entertainment company Live Nation. The next phase is for the item to be discussed and voted on at the regular City Commission meeting May 16 at City Hall.

 

A Los Angeles-based company that manages amphitheaters, theaters, clubs, arenas and festival sites — including the Sound Advice Amphitheater in Palm Beach and the legendary Fillmore in San Francisco — Live Nation proposes to change the Gleason’s name to “The Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater.” The reputation the Fillmore name brings, along with a number of interior renovations Live Nation intends to make, have some Beach residents worried the integrity of the landmark will be lost; that the theater will become nothing but a rock and roll venue and a night club.

 

“We don’t want a nightclub license or a restaurant license,” Bruce Eskowitz, CEO of Live Nation’s North American Music division, said at the opening of Wednesday’s meeting.

But not everyone in the meeting was assured by his words. Mango’s Tropical Cafe owner David Wallack stood up and hollered, “This is a lie, and it’s going into direct competition with restaurants and clubs.”

 

Eskowitz then agreed to have written into the contract that shows would end around midnight, after which liquor and food would not be served.

 

An issue still unsettled is that many fear Live Nation will attract an element not desired by the city’s residents.

“What you’re doing is getting rid of the Gleason and opening a rock ’n’ roll ballroom,” said Roger Abramson, a Miami Beach resident who’s had a long career producing big-name acts from the Rolling Stones to Bob Marley.

 

Abramson told the SunPost he thinks the type of shows produced by Live Nation aren’t broad-based enough to represent the entire community of Miami Beach.

 

“I think the Gleason is the only cultural icon in the city — let it be for everyone. At least let’s be clear with what we’re getting.”

 

Some of the acts that Live Nation produced in 2006 include The Pretenders, UB40, Ice Cube, Paul Oakenfold, Sonic Youth and Ricky Martin.

 

If the commission votes to enter into the proposed agreement, Live Nation plans to close the Jackie Gleason for renovations from June until possibly the end of October. Commissioner Saul Gross went as far as telling representatives of Live Nation that they should begin pulling construction permits immediately, and if for some reason the contract falls through, the city will reimburse them. Construction will likely cause problems for acts like the 12th Annual International Ballet Festival of Miami, which has shows scheduled for September 15 and 16 at the Gleason. The festival’s marketing and public relations person, Karen Eva Couty, questioned what would happen to them.

 

“What I’m hearing today is that you probably should be making other plans,” Gross said.

 

Later Eskowitz said he would do his best to accommodate the festival, but couldn’t guarantee anything.

 

Even before the 2,700-seat Jackie Gleason Theater lost many of its bread-and-butter acts to the recently opened Carnival Performing Arts Center downtown, it was operating on a total deficit of about $1.5 million per year. Two years ago a proposal was made to convert the Jackie Gleason into a permanent performance venue for Cirque du Soleil. Later on, AEG Live expressed an interest in taking over the theater’s operations. When a bid was issued, Live Nation joined in the race and Cirque du Soleil backed out. The commission decided to go with Live Nation, a company that proposed a 15-year contract in which the owner would do $3.5 million in renovations and pay the city a minimum of $1 million per year.

 

The commission will discuss and likely vote on the fate of the Jackie Gleason at the regularly scheduled commission meeting Wednesday, May 16, at Miami Beach City Hall.

 

The Power of Liability

Legal Jargon Stalls Islands’ Undergrounding

By Angie Hargot

An FPL contractor trims trees around a power line.

A bit of legalese has some at City Hall concerned as officials research the process of undergrounding power lines in some of Miami Beach’s wealthiest neighborhoods.

Especially troubling is an indemnity clause that would hold Florida Power and Light harmless and the city of Miami Beach responsible for any damages done to property during the undergrounding process in Palm, Star, Hibiscus, the Venetian and the Sunset islands.

Moving those neighborhoods’ power lines underground would minimize the possibility of power losses during hurricanes, and some residents have been calling for the city to begin the pre-emptive procedure for years.

The rub: The city’s going to need some “outside assistance” to even negotiate the legal matters with FPL.

“Neither the Administrative staff nor City Attorney’s Office have deep experience with matters of this nature, therefore, outside assistance will be needed if the city reasonably expects to be able to deal effectively with FPL,” wrote City Manager Jorge Gonzalez in a memo to the Neighborhoods/Community Affairs Committee in preparation for the committee’s April 25 discussion item.

Gonzalez referenced a group of about 30 communities around the state that have retained the Tallahassee law firm Young Van Assenderp P.A. to represent them in inevitable legal negotiations.

City staff has now suggested Miami Beach join the group, called the Municipal Underground Utilities Consortium (MUUC), which is expected to cost the city between $12,000 and $24,000.

“The city has advanced to the point of helping a number of islands,” Assistant City Manager Bob Middaugh told the SunPost. “But we’re basically stuck with the right-of-way agreement, because it opens the city up to all kinds of liability,” he said.

The town of Palm Beach has already retained the firm to negotiate on its behalf with FPL, Bell South and a local cable provider, to the tune of $60,000.

In an April 23 memo, Gonzalez informed the committee about the crux of the problems in the stalled negotiations — an adjusted right-of-way agreement negotiates the terms of where those underground lines and facilities will actually run, taking into account existing capital improvement projects, but tosses in a “very strong indemnity clause.”

City Attorney Raul Aguila said in a March 14 e-mail to Tim Rose, executive director of Palm-Hibiscus-Star Islands Association, Inc., one of the neighborhood associations pushing for the undergrounding, that he “spoke with the attorney from FPL on Monday, and his position was quite clear regarding FPL’s requirement that, as part of the proposed agreement, the city unconditionally indemnify and hold FPL harmless.” This clause, Aguila said, would expose the city to “potentially broad liability,” and that requirement actually “surprised” him.

The vote to join the MUUC will come before the City Commission on Wednesday, May 16.

 

A Hotel To Be Named James

South Beach’s ‘First Green Hotel’ Must Go Back to Drawing Board, Historic Board Says

By Gillian Boyce

The Days Inn at 21st Street and Collins Avenue is set to get a major makeover that will result in the first environmentally friendly hotel on South Beach, with bicycle racks and showers for employees, according to the proprietors of Days Inn.

The new lodge will be known as The James Hotel, not to be confused with the James Hotel currently located at 16th Street and James Avenue. Founded by the owner of Equinox Gyms, the new James Hotel will strive for a similar culture that incorporates “luxury that’s fun and has a sense of ease," said Brad Wilson of the James Hotel Group.

Representatives of JHMB LLC sought the Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board’s approval to renovate and restore the existing structure to its original condition, adding a new rooftop, a new eight-story addition to the south side of the hotel, and a separate single-story cabana. The project is being headed by New York architectural firm Skidmore, Owens & Merrill.

Some HPB members supported the project but said they failed to see how they could approve the site plans since the area was not zoned for eight stories; other members expressed dissatisfaction with the current site plans.

“I urge you to look into the fire code violations associated with this project,” said board member Allan Hall, adding that he was pleased with the proposal but that JHMB needed to come back with a revised site plan and approval from the Zoning Department.

“I will not vote for this project as presented now,” said board member Jeff Donnelly, suggesting the hotel’s architects look at several South Beach structural extensions to see how to distinguish original buildings from new structures, such as differences in paint or building material. He stressed that it should be easy for the public to discern the historical parts of the building from new additions.

Several residents voiced support for the project. Ray Breslin of the Collins Park Neighborhood Association told the HPB he was “very impressed with what [Brad Wilson] is doing for the neighborhood,” adding, “This will probably produce the first green hotel in Florida.”

“We are going to be the third destination of Miami Beach, and you guys [HPB] have the ability to make that happen,” Breslin said.

HPB voted unanimously for a continuance until June 12 to allow JHMB to revise its site plans, get zoning approval and resubmit its proposal to the board.

Also discussed at the HPB meeting was a request by the owners of The Clevelander for permission to demolish more of the existing structure than the board previously authorized, because of an oversight in previously submitted site plans. The hotel’s owners want to add an additional story to the four-story structure approved by the HPB, install a new roof and add a wall along the alley to create a new elevator shaft. The HPB granted the request unanimously.

 

Traffic Generators

Planning Board Scolds Yacht Show Organizers Over Past Event’s Traffic Nightmare, But One Resident Wants the Whole Thing To Just Sail Away

By Angie Hargot

A discussion at an April 24 meeting of the Miami Beach Planning Board determined that Yachting Promotions, Inc. would have to get its act together for the Yacht and Brokerage Show sooner for next year’s shindig.

In a verbal progress report, show producer Dane Graziano fielded questions and criticisms about a few traffic debacles that left a lingering distaste in the mouths of citizens and board members alike.

Just last year, the Yacht and Brokerage Boat Show was granted a variance by the same board to extend the boat docks another 296 feet, bringing the whole length up to nearly a mile, with a total of over 460 slips.

For decades the Yacht and Brokerage Show has displayed their boats along Indian Creek when the Miami International Boat Show comes to town in February.

Unfortunately, residents and board members fear that the increase in size would bring with it increased traffic congestion woes.

“We had an unusual year, with the 63rd Street bridge [construction] and The Super Bowl,” Graziano said.

Board member Ted Berman remembered the traffic congestion created by last February’s show when an extra lane of traffic became apportioned for boat show loading and unloading.

“On February 12th at 11:30 in the morning, there was no detail of police, there was a single lane of traffic, and a truck was trying to make a left hand turn into Mount Sinai [Medical Center],” Berman said. “Item 14 in the [show’s] conditional use permit allows you to have one lane. When you were closing down the show, we had had the whole traffic of Miami Beach reduced to one lane,” he said. “Traffic was at a standstill.”

Board member Marlo Courtney explained that the language of the show’s conditional use permit does not allow the use of two lanes for loading and unloading of equipment, which Graziano explained to be the large lighting and generators for the show.

Board member Robert Kaplan suggested Graziano look into transporting the cargo by water, thus alleviating some of the problem. “It was unacceptable for two days,” Kaplan said.

“Unfortunately the boats are getting bigger,” Graziano said of the burgeoning show.

Two citizens addressed the board, representing both sides of the polarized debate over the trials and tribulation of having the show in the city at all.

“Nothing is forever,” Joe Fontana, president of the Miami Beach Condo and Homeowners Alliance, said. “The Yacht Show has outlived its usefulness on Miami Beach on Collins Avenue. It has to find another location. It’s not acceptable anymore.”

Ray Breslin, chairman of the Collins Park Neighborhood Association, said the Yacht Show deserves some seniority over the increased traffic created by the real estate explosion the city has experienced.

“The yacht show has been coming here for 50 years, we can’t say ‘guess what we’ve replaced you with condos,’” Breslin said. “I don’t think that’s fair.”

Planning Department Director Jorge Gomez suggested that more information might be needed before any decisions could be considered. “We could do a pre-application meeting, which we had stopped doing,” Gomez said, prior to the company’s application for its conditional use permit.

Graziano addressed the board’s dismay over how long it took show organizers to remove the temporary piling used to moor yachts to, reporting that the contractor that had been hired had died.

“He had a massive heart attack, and his son took over,” Graziano said. “We have since fired the company.”

The board’s final determination was that the “applicant should start the process earlier and have a pre-submission meeting with staff to go over operational issues and ways to ameliorate impact on the city,” city documents show. The annual Yacht and Brokerage Show is usually scheduled for mid-February, and show organizers have previously begun planning with the city as early as September.

 

Sunny Isles Beach

More Tax Breaks for Seniors

Proposed Ordinance Would Give Low-Income Individuals Older Than 65 an Added Tax Cut

By Randy Abraham

In a special meeting held May 8, the Sunny Isles Beach City Commission granted initial approval for an ordinance providing additional tax relief for the city’s low-income senior citizens.

The measure, if approved on second and final reading at the commission’s regularly scheduled May 17 meeting, will give low-income seniors an extra property tax exemption of $25,000.

With the ordinance, eligible homeowners could receive a full $75,000 exemption from property taxes on their primary residence, including the $25,000 decades-long Florida Homestead Exemption offered to state residents on their primary home, the $25,000 exemption enacted a few years ago for low-income senior citizens, and now the additional $25,000 exemption for seniors.

The measure, said Mayor Norman Edelcup, would provide relief to seniors hard-hit by soaring property tax bills. “This is nothing more than ratifying what voters approved in November,” said Edelcup, referring to an enabling referendum passed in the last general election.

The ordinance would exempt taxpayers only from the city tax portion of their total property tax bill, and would not affect taxes levied by the School Board, public health district or other tax-levying agencies.

According to Michael J. Postell, senior property appraiser administrator for the
Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser’s Office, local governments must approve the measure before June 1, when the county begins preparing its tax rolls. The criteria to qualify for the exemption are the same as for the first senior-citizen property tax exemption. Residents must:

1. Currently have a homestead exemption.

2. Be 65 years of age or older as of January 1.

3. Have household adjusted gross income not exceeding $24,214. 

Household income is for all persons living in the home regardless of ownership. Typically Social Security benefits do not count toward adjusted gross income, said Postell, who added that the exemption does not automatically renew and that a renewal application must be filed annually.

As of 2006, Postell said the following cities offer the senior citizens property tax exemption: Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Hialeah, Miami Springs, South Miami, Homestead, West Miami, Golden Beach, Pinecrest, North Bay Village, Sweetwater, Hialeah Gardens, Aventura, Sunny Isles Beach, Miami Lakes, Palmetto Bay and Miami Gardens.

So far, the only ordinance for the additional senior exemption submitted to the Property Appraiser’s Office was from the city of Miami, Postell said. Miami-Dade County is scheduled to take up the $50,000 senior exemption on May 22.

Edelcup said the additional savings will not pose a financial hardship. Based on the senior exemption already in place, only about 100 city residents would qualify. With a calculated saving of $75 per $1,000 of assessed property value, the measure would cost the city about $40,000, he said. “It’s not a major hit for the city,” said Edelcup. “We’ll just absorb it.”

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