The SunPost

May be sold… or not: Miami Heart Institute. Photo by Ben Torter

With the possibility that the Miami Heart Institute will be sold to private developers in the near future, neighborhood associations have united behind an initiative put forth by Miami Beach Commissioner Saul Gross to decide the type of redevelopment they will and will not accept for the hospital campus.

A meeting last week at Miami Heart — which was originally intended to be a simple Nautilus Area Homeowners Association meeting — drew an impassioned crowd of at least 100, and hinted that the future of the nine-acre hospital campus, owned by Mount Sinai Medical Center, could become an important issue in this year’s election on Nov. 6.

Attending the meeting were five Miami Beach city commissioners, as well as candidates Frank Kruszewski, Elsa Urquiza, Jonah Wolfson and Luis Salom. Outside the meeting a man passed out campaign fliers asking people to elect Luis Salom for Miami Beach Commissioner Group 4.

The city’s Planning Department director, Jorge Gomez, gave a presentation on the site’s current zoning and possible future uses.

The north parking lot of the Miami Heart campus, 4701 N. Meridian Ave., is zoned RM-1, a classification that allows buildings up to 50 feet in height. According to Gomez, buildings five or six stories tall could theoretically be built in that area. The south parking lot is zoned only for single-family homes. The site of the hospital buildings is zoned for hospital use, and would have to be rezoned to build anything else. Gomez explained that changing the zoning would require a comprehensive plan change, multiple public hearings in front of both the City Commission and Planning Board, and state approval; a process he estimated would take six to nine months at minimum.

Mount Sinai’s hiring of a firm to explore the possibility of selling the Miami Heart campus was first reported in the Miami Herald on May 4. Mount Sinai CEO Steven Sonenreich was quoted as saying it would not be sold to another hospital. That’s when residents began to fear for their single-family neighborhood. Could high-rise condominiums like the Blue and Green Diamonds be built on the site? How about something like Aqua at Allison Island, which sits on the former site of St. Francis Hospital adjacent to the 63rd Street drawbridge? St. Francis was open from 1926 until 1993, when it was purchased by Columbia Healthcare, and its operations moved into the Miami Heart Institute. In 1998 developer Craig Robins purchased St. Francis. One year later Beach commissioners voted to down-zone it from hospital use to its current use for townhouses and apartments. At the time, some neighbors objected, saying it would increase traffic too much. Some wanted single-family homes; others said Robins’ buildings were too tall.

With these and other fears in mind, residents began e-mailing and calling the commission. So Gross put the Miami Heart item up for discussion at the May 16 commission meeting. There it was decided to continue talks at this May 30 homeowners meeting.

Michael Adler, vice chairman of the board of Mount Sinai, stood at the podium and reconfirmed that Mount Sinai had hired a firm to look into the possibility of selling Miami Heart. Adler said Mount Sinai is also looking at many ways to keep the site for hospital use. Some include an assisted living facility, and medical school facilities for the University of Miami or Florida International University.

Adler reiterated his stance that it is wrong for the city to talk about rezoning the site, when Mount Sinai doesn’t know if it will sell. Gross remained quiet until toward the end of the meeting.

“We seem to be beating around the bush a bit,” Gross said. Why would the city wait until the hospital has a buyer to come up with an appropriate F.A.R. and height for this site, he questioned. Much of the audience broke into applause.

“Saul, I know you believe that, but that’s not the process of zoning,” Adler said. Aside from his work with Mount Sinai, Adler is chairman and chief executive of Adler Group, Inc., whose web site boasts “over 40 years of property management, acquisition, development and construction experience.”

Adler suggested that Mount Sinai is a not-for-profit organization committed to the quality of the Miami Beach community. For that reason, and because many of the hospital’s directors live in the neighborhood, he said residents should trust them to make the best decision for all involved.

“Every televangelist who drives a Rolls Royce is a not-for-profit,” Henry Lowenstein shouted from the audience. Besides living near Miami Heart, Lowenstein acts as the pro bono legal counsel for the Orchard Park Homeowners Association.

Lowenstein told Adler residents know Mount Sinai is pouring money into political campaigns, and if it really has the best interest of the community at heart, it will go with Gross’ plan. His comments were applauded.

Four of seven seats on the Miami Beach City Commission, including the mayor’s post, are up for election in November. Any sort of rezoning for Miami Heart, if any proposals are made, will likely be left to a new commission.

Campaign finance records show Adler and other board members and associates of Mount Sinai have indeed donated about $33,000 of the $150,700 raised by Commissioner Simon Cruz for his mayoral run. Also, though Salom doesn’t have any money from Adler, about $6,000 of the $64,315 in cash and checks he has raised come from Mount Sinai board members and associates, including Sonenreich. Salom is both a founder, and on the board of directors, of Mount Sinai.

“This is going to be one of the most important elections in the history of Miami Beach,” Lowenstein told the SunPost on Monday. “We are going to have to decide whether we’ll be governed by developers and big money, or by the votes of citizens.”

Cruz told the SunPost the money he received from Adler and Mount Sinai had nothing to do with Miami Heart, and was given a year ago before the sale of the hospital was on the table. The records confirm that the majority of those donations were received in June 2006.

Cruz said he assumes the campaign money came as a result of his support last year of two requests by Mount Sinai for funds from the city to mitigate the costs of making the hospital more hurricane-secure. The first was an “emergency allocation” of $1.9 million to begin making the hospital hurricane-ready; the second was $35 million over seven years to further upgrade the facility’s hurricane preparedness. The commission voted 6-0 to give Mount Sinai $751,611 from surplus funds received from the Miami Beach Health Facilities Authority. It also agreed to waive $121,084 in fees charged Mount Sinai for fiscal year 2005.

“I was supportive of that, and because of that they saw me as a supporter of health care,” Cruz told the SunPost.

Cruz also explained that between July 2005 and December 2006 he spent a lot of time in the hospital while both his parents fell ill and died.

“From that perspective, I became completely dedicated to supporting health care,” Cruz said.

Cruz said he supports Gross’ initiative as long as all parties — residents, the city and Mount Sinai — have equal time at the table.

“I believe residents need to be protected, and that goes without saying,” Cruz said. “I have no problem with it going to the Planning Department for a recommendation.”

Salom, a 38-resident of Miami Beach and a political newcomer, said despite being on the board of Mount Sinai, he doesn’t know what the hospital is planning. He said he believes in a transparent process, and that whatever the outcome, he’s confident residents and the hospital will come to a mutually beneficial agreement.

“I believe that both Mount Sinai and the residents should get together to create a win-win situation for the residents, the hospital, and the community as a whole,” Salom told the SunPost. Asked if Miami Heart is a big issue in this year’s race, he said it hasn’t been up until now. Salom has been going door-to-door talking with residents and business owners. He said people are concerned over issues like better streets, affordable housing, undergrounding of utilities, and maintaining police and fire services in the wake of the state’s proposed property tax cuts. But now that the subject is out in public, he expects to hear about it.

“Once I start knocking on the doors close to that area it will be a major issue,” Salom said.

Mount Sinai purchased the Miami Heart Institute from Columbia Healthcare in July 2000 for $75 million. The land was leased until April, when it was purchased for an additional $6 million. Sonenreich blames an overall downtrend in demand for hospital services for Mount Sinai and Miami Heart’s financial struggles. He explained that 15 years ago there were four hospitals in Miami Beach with an average of 1,200 patients daily, but today there is only one hospital, Mount Sinai itself, with about 400 patients per day, and only 50 percent are from Miami Beach.

The only functions left at Miami Heart are a rehab facility, veterans’ services and a hospice. Planning Director Gomez pointed out that residents are used to living next to a nearly empty building, and if Miami Heart were to become a fully functional medical facility, much more traffic would be generated than if it becomes a residential community.

Adler said if Mount Sinai sells Miami Heart, the money will likely be used to build a state of the art surgical tower on the hospital’s main campus at 4300 Alton Road.

The next step is for the city’s Planning Board to study zoning options and make a recommendation to the commission at its July 11 meeting.

Commissioner and mayoral candidate Matti Bower told those at the meeting she agrees with Gross’ plan.

“I think we should be prepared with analysis from staff,” Bower said. Bower’s campaign finance records don’t show support from Mount Sinai.

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