Some unsightly construction sites in Collins Park, like the former Wolfie’s Restaurant, get extensions provided they clean up their act. Photo by Angie Hargot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With some big projects requesting extensions of time across the city of Miami Beach, the Board of Adjustment had its hands, and its agenda, full during a meeting held Monday.

But the possibility that some of those projects could be using the extensions as a stalling tactic in a waning real estate market has sparked concern.

Board members postulated that some of the projects before them requesting extensions for various reasons could be dragging their feet while they sell out their remaining units. Meanwhile, their unsightly construction sites continue to create an eyesore, angering many Beach residents.

“If they want to hire me I’ll paint it every fucking day.”

“Our neighborhood is blighted,” Ray Breslin, chairman of the Collins Park Neighborhood Association, said. “I’d like to see something being built there.”

Breslin was referring to the site where the famous Wolfie’s restaurant once stood. The restaurant was knocked down and new owners are constructing a six-story mixed-use residential building there, reserving the ground floor for commercial uses.

The city set the building’s original completion date for April 4, 2005. Since then the project’s developer, Bert Brodsky of New York, has requested and secured a slew of extensions, the most recent requested at Monday’s meeting.

“There’s graffiti all over the building,” Breslin told the board.

The developer’s attorney, Alfredo Gonzalez, claimed that the standing walls, often a target for graffiti artists, have been painted several times, but the graffitists keep coming back. Other construction sites in the Collins Park neighborhood make similar graffiti targets.

“If they want to hire me I’ll paint it every fucking day,” the usually unruffled Breslin told the board, upset at claims that the graffiti reappears hours after it is painted over. “I am that dedicated and have that much passion about my neighborhood.”

Breslin, who apologized for his slip of the tongue, also said construction sites in the Collins Park area are not properly screened from residents.

“This is a whole city block,” board member Roberto Datorre said. “It’s an eyesore to the community. Because of the market, we’re going to see a lot of projects stall.”

Datorre punctuated a sentiment that surfaced again and again during the meeting. Could developers be requesting extensions as Band-Aids for poorly executed projects, or to simply buy time to sell more units?

With that in mind, the board, faced with an agenda peppered with one-year extension requests for these buildings, began doling out modest six-month extensions, forcing the projects to come back before the board at the end of that time if need be.

The patrolling of completion dates keeps projects moving, city officials said.

“That came about in the wake of the North Beach project that took 10 years to build and kind of looked like Beirut,” Richard Lorber, planning and zoning manager for the city, told the SunPost, referring to the Carillon Hotel.

When the real estate market was hot, the need to assign completion dates disappeared. But now Miami Beach is heading into another phase.

“Every project until three years ago got a completion date, and then large projects kept having to come in to extend the completion date,” Lorber explained. “After yesterday’s meeting it looks like they’re going back to that.”

Are developers stalling? Lorber said that “there does seem to be a lot of requests for extensions of time.”

“Basically the board in the past has specified a completion date to ensure sites don’t sit vacant. They can ask for a condition that the project be completed in such and such a time, and add conditions that the project be screened or the site cleaned up,” Lorber said. “It’s really governed by the Florida building code. Some projects seem to be taking longer.”

Lorber said he’s seen a slew of construction holdups that can delay a project, ranging from last year’s concrete shortage to hurricanes to just generally complicated project designs — alluding to the possibility that it’s not just a market slowdown that has so many projects on the agenda.

The lengthy permitting process is another reason projects stall, according to some industry professionals.

Attorneys for projects often go head-to-head with board members over just how many months it takes to get a building permit from the city.

The trend of time extensions “does not surprise me,” said Lucia Dougherty, attorney with Greenberg Traurig. “It takes a lot of time to get a building permit.”

Dougherty came before the Board of Adjustment Monday representing the Ankara project slated to replace the current Creek Hotel at 2360 Collins Ave., and requesting a modification to the proposed site plans from an apartment building to a hotel.

She says some projects originally planned as condo buildings are cutting their losses in reaction to market speculation, and changing their plans to office space. “One of my clients is switching to retail,” Dougherty told the SunPost. “Miami Beach is ideal for the switch to hotels, especially with the closing of the Fontainebleau. The hotel business is high right now in terms of occupancy and rate.”

Dougherty feels the extensions are, to some extent, in reaction to a deteriorating real estate market. “Clearly,” she said.

“I don’t have to tell you about the market,” she advised the board on Monday. She scored an 18-month extension for the Ankara project to get a revised building permit.

The trend doesn’t just concern speculators. Board member Datorre, president of Miami Beach Community Development Corporation, is a developer by trade, and so is doubly concerned.

“Last year or a year ago a lot of projects were in need of extensions. It was in response to the real estate market,” Datorre said. “I am in this business, and it has gone down. A lot of these projects are not going to move forward. Some have already started construction, and now you have an eyesore. I understand it takes a long time for permitting.” As long as the city sees that the project is moving forward, Datorre said, there’s no cause for alarm. But sometimes “they see the real estate market, and there’s concern.”

Even with the widespread examination of a market downturn, it may be too soon to tell the exact ramifications of the slump.

“It seems to be as crowded as ever in this office,” Lorber said. “I suppose you might slow down a project, [by requesting an extension]. The board was concerned, and wanted to make sure sites are moving along. So they keep bringing them back for project reports, and making sure the sites stay clean.”

“Projects begin to do whatever is nominally required to maintain their permits,” board member Larry Herrup said during the meeting. With a look of distrust on his face he labored through request after request, as developers, in effect, traded the promise of cleaning up their sites for six-month extensions.

“When you walk down the street all you see is plywood,” Breslin said.

Projects are still under the gun, even without the Planning Department’s new policing of progress. Building inspections must occur every six months. “That way [staff] can keep the board apprised of progress,” Lorber said. “With the completion date [the project has] already spent a lot of money, and the board can add what they feel is necessary.”

And, as Datorre explained, the city does have options to combat a potential feet-dragging trend: “by code enforcement or by the awarding of adjustment, adding time limits,” he said. “[The projects] lose rights that they have when they’re doing nothing. If you’re doing the right thing it can be extended for a year or six months. You get people complaining about construction sites. That adds an extra level of protection.

“The reality is the market is not great,” he added. “You get speculators or developers playing around with the property.”

The board decided to place a special discussion item on current development trends on the agenda for its May 4 meeting.

Comments? E-mail angie@miamisunpost.com