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 Lucia Dougherty and Carter McDowell
Super Lobbyists
If you’ve seen one lobbyist debating the merits of another
McMansion to a bunch of bored commissioners, you’ve seen ’em all.
Well, except for these folks. Super-lobbyists Lucia Dougherty and
Carter McDowell are the
South Florida attorneys who will drain developers of a small
fortune, but almost always get their mega-projects built.
Dougherty served as an assistant city attorney in
Oklahoma City before becoming Miami Beach’s city attorney in 1982.
But her career really took off after allegedly bagging former
Miami Beach Mayor Alex Daoud (at least that’s what he claims in
his recent book, Sins of South Beach) and, in 1984, she
became
Miami’s
city attorney, a position she held until 1988.
So the lady is no stranger to politics, which is probably what
makes her such a damn good land-use attorney.
For example, in recent weeks, the now-Greenberg Traurig attorney
has gone toe-to-toe with the city of
Miami over the two proposed $1 billion, 1,010-foot skyscrapers
called Empire World Towers — a 1,557-unit project slated to be
built on Biscayne Boulevard across from Bayfront Park — when city
commissioners became concerned with traffic.
Although the project — which would put Miami’s building height in
line with those in New York and Chicago — has been delayed for
further city review, it stands as a good example of why Dougherty
has always been one to watch: She fights for developers’ rights to
transform South Florida skylines.
In
Miami Beach,
it’s all about Carter McDowell.
Development attorney McDowell sent a stern warning to the city of
Miami last year that its proposed rezoning project,
Miami
21, would be challenged in court. The city actually listened to
what McDowell and slew of other lobbyists said, and the plan was
delayed and rewritten again. And Miami isn’t McDowell’s only
stomping ground. He also has a host of projects to his credit in
Miami Beach. In March of last year, the city’s Planning Board gave
the developers of Naya a green light on the project, despite
passionate opposition from neighbors, because McDowell, who was
also involved in the renovation of the Fontainebleau and the
embattled Coral Rock House, argued that his developer clients
could build something even worse there.
Like Dougherty, McDowell is no stranger to opposition. When he
stands before the city’s power boards, you can bet there will be
sparks. For example, the battle to redevelop the Sonesta Beach
Resort continued through last year, until Sonesta developers and
Preserve Our Key Biscayne activists finally reached a compromise
on the design of the project, with 100 residential units and 115
hotel-condo units.
Smart
South Florida developers know one thing: If you want
to build something, Lucia Dougherty and Carter McDowell will help
you get it done.
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