Miami Beach

Heading West

City board deems South Beach block ‘historic’

By Erik Bojnansky

The Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board unanimously recommended to include the east side of Alton Road between Seventh and Eighth streets in a historic district.

The board’s action Tuesday meant that two post-war apartment buildings at 755 Alton Road and 759 Alton Road would be given historical protection pending final approval or rejection by the Miami Beach City Commission.

However, the move came too late for two structures on the block constructed before World War II. Those buildings were demolished last month.

“It will put a lid on demolitions, and that is not a bad thing,” said Bill Farkas, executive director of the Miami Design Preservation League.

Last year, the HPB started looking at expanding the Flamingo Park Historic District to the east side of Alton Road between Seventh and 14th streets. Under city ordinance, properties located within a historic district cannot be demolished or significantly altered without board approval.

But property owners, including Crescent Heights, a development company headed by Russell Galbut, resisted historic designation, particularly on the 700 block of West Avenue. Believing that the Miami Beach City Commission lacked the will to designate the 700 block, the HPB recommended last August only that the east side of Alton Road between Eighth and 14th streets be made part of the district, voting 4-3 not to include the 700 block.

Following the November election, a new City Commission not only unanimously approved the Flamingo Park expansion on Jan. 16, but also authorized the HPB to take another look at the 700 block.

But, by then, two buildings had already been demolished — the Twin Harbor Apartments at 725-735 Alton Road, designed by V.H. Nellenbogen and built in 1936, and a Mediterranean Revival “residence” at 745 Alton Road constructed by A.J. Blackstone in 1993.

Paul Sterental, a special projects manager for Crescent Heights, objected to historic designation. He argued that the two remaining buildings were not historically significant and would limit his company’s plans to develop a single mixed-use project on the entire block.

Mark Needle, an Alton Road resident, said the 700 block would have been included in the expanded district were it not for a “Pearl Harbor” attack on historic preservation organized by “one or two people.”

“If you don’t go forward with this, two more historic buildings could be lost,” he said.

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