Pass the Buck
Board Sends Eden Roc’s Request for Precedent-Setting Parking
Variance to Commission

“The Eden Roc could easily be considered a convention hotel.”

 
The Eden Roc Renaissance Resort & Spa says it doesn’t need so much parking for its new addition. Photo by Mitchell Zachs/Magicalphotos.com.

By Angie Hargot

Representatives of the Eden Roc Renaissance Resort & Spa had no problem receiving a modification from the Miami Beach Board of Adjustment that would allow for two vehicle elevators needed to put some parking underground.

However, there was a bone of a contention over a second item requested last Friday — one that would allow the Marriott-operated hotel at 4525 Collins Avenue to provide fewer spaces than legally allowed and save the property owners hundreds of thousands of dollars in impact fees.

Figuring that Eden Roc’s request would change the definition of a “convention hotel” in the city of Miami Beach, the Board of Adjustment decided on referring the request to the City Commission. The applicant for the parking variance was Key Eden Roc General Partner, Inc., a company owned by Jose, Iñigo and Diego Ardid.

At the expense of some parking, construction is already on for a new 11,500-square-foot banquet room. In addition, the Historic Preservation Board had requested that some architectural elements on the front of the building be changed, which also affected the hotel’s parking options, according to Eden Roc representatives.

The historical Morris Lapidus-designed resort, built in 1955, is currently undergoing a $110 million renovation that includes the ballroom and a new 283-room tower, and is slated to be completed by fall 2008. The hotel has also said it will close from mid-April to about October of this year for renovations to the existing 349-room tower.

City of Miami Beach code says the Eden Roc must have at least 283 parking spaces for the new 20-story building addition (bringing the hotel’s total room count to 632 units). But the ballroom/meeting hall has taken up parking spaces that are in short supply.

Faced with hefty impact fees penalizing the company for a shortage of spaces, the hotel applied for a variance. The exception the Eden Roc wants would change the required number of spaces to 226 — about a 20 percent reduction, saving the company about $855,000 in parking impact fees.

Board member Seth Frohlich had reservations about hearing the item at all, stating it was an application “strictly financial in nature.”

“We can’t vote on strictly financial cases,” he said. “It’s either that you’re paying $2.3 million or $1.4 million.”

Neisen Kasdin, a former Miami Beach mayor and an attorney for the Eden Roc, had a different reason why the board should consider the item. Kasdin attempted to make a case for hardship by parading a slew of project officials in front of the board. The Eden Roc, he offered, should be considered a “convention hotel,” and fall under the same code ordinances those hotels enjoy. Designated convention hotels are required to provide only a half-spot per hotel room, or 50 percent fewer spots, based on the presumption that conventions bring fewer travelers who need to park. Often the conventions consist of large groups of people who stay and attend their conferences on-site.

Also subject to the relaxed parking requirements are hotels within 1,500 feet of the Miami Beach Convention Center. These hotels fall under the convention hotel designation, because hotel guests could viably walk to the center, alleviating the need for a parking spot.

The Eden Roc “could easily be considered a convention hotel,” according to John Nichols, architect for the project. “These always have been considered convention hotels,” just not as defined by the code, he said.

Kasdin compared the Eden Roc to already-designated convention hotels like the Ritz-Carlton and the Loews Miami Beach Hotel, which, he says, do not actually book as much convention traffic as the Eden Roc does.

“The Eden Roc is being treated differently from similar hotels [that are] within 1,500 feet of the convention center,” Kasdin said. “It just happens to be a few hundred feet farther.”

Kasdin referenced a letter from Stuart Blumberg of the Greater Miami and the Beaches Hotel Association supporting the variance. Also entered into evidence was a parking survey that showed more than half of the Eden Roc’s income comes from conventions.

Kasdin even suggested that the levy of the impact fees could increase the cost of the project, which might inspire a redesign of the new convention hall, and that could potentially dwarf the city’s tourism economy.

Impact fees collected from the mid-beach hotel would have to be reinvested in the area, and the possibility of a parking garage being built nearby was considered. “There have been conceptual plans, but I don’t think they’ll ever come to fruition,” Planning Director Jorge Gomez said.

The parking variance item was split into two items: first, a motion to continue the variance request for 90 days, effectively keeping open the board’s option to approve the variance; and second, a resolution to pass the item up to the Miami Beach City Commission to decide whether the definition of a convention hotel should be amended to include hotels like the Eden Roc.

Board members postulated that the item could easily be bounced right back to the Board of Adjustment, “but at least we tried,” Frohlich said.

Comments? E-mail angie@miamisunppost.com.