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| June 25, 2004 |
By: Terry Sheridan |
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Oliver Parker, mayor of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea
Photo by
Melanie Bell
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espite a new zoning district that allows the 34-unit luxury Oriana townhouse and condo project to move forward, Lauderdale-by-the-Sea has a message for developers of other potential projects: Don’t get your hopes up.
Just to make sure everyone’s heard that, the town has extended its building moratorium until this fall, which is when an economic study of the town’s business base and development possibilities should be delivered to the Town Commission.
Oriana was the last project approved before the development gate slammed shut.
The tiny Broward County town, sandwiched between Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach, is known for its anti-growth stance, priding itself on being out of step with its bigger neighbors.
For the past two years, in fact, Mayor Oliver Parker has been the lone speaker at the annual breakfast for Broward municipal mayors hosted by the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Lauderdale who didn’t trumpet his town’s newest mixed-use project or development of regional impact — and he didn’t invite developers to set up shop.
Lauderdale-by-the-Sea is, above all else, a resort town, Parker insists.
Still, he and other officials are keenly aware that the town’s location between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean is catnip to hungry developers.
Hence the decision to halt demolition and construction on all projects except Oriana while the economic study explores the town’s key development issue: How to grow its resort business base, yet remain the small and quaint village that visitors and residents want.
That’s why Parker, when the Daily Business Review asked whether he’s a fan of the newly approved Oriana project, replied, “It depends.”
Pier Pointe Developers LLC, a group of real estate investors from New York and New Jersey, paid $14 million last month for the Pier Pointe Resort at 4320 El Mar Drive, a 100-unit complex about a block south of Lauderdale-by–the-Sea’s business district.
The proposed replacement project consists of 10 townhouses priced at $2.7 million — increased this week from $2.5 million because of rising steel and concrete construction costs — and 24 condominiums priced from $1 million to $1.65 million.
After putting down a hefty $500,000 deposit on the purchase, the partners spent seven months completing the deal. That’s at least partly because the deal helped push through new beachfront zoning, called an overlay district.
The town amended its charter in 1998 to increase height limits from three to four stories, allowing “three over one” projects that consist of three stories of residential use over one-story parking or laundry facilities.
There are three high-rise buildings of 15 and 22 stories on the north end of town, but they were approved before Lauderdale-by-the-Sea annexed the area.
But the requisite ordinance putting the charter change into effect hadn’t been crafted.
Earlier this year, the Oriana project propelled the ordinance’s passage, creating what’s called an overlay district, said the developer’s zoning attorney, Susan Delegal, a partner at Holland & Knight in Fort Lauderdale. Delegal lives in the town and is a member of the master plan steering committee.
The overlay allows the developers more flexibility in how the townhouses and condos will be placed on the site. In exchange, the town gets greater oversight of the project’s appearance.
“We originally had a gorgeous, white-stucco design but the town said, ‘This isn’t us, this is South Beach,’ ” said Michael Dalton, one of the Oriana project’s principals. “The town was very interested in a Mediterraean-style product. They were very clear — very clear — about that.”
So, Oriana will be earth tones of cream, tan and brown.
Dalton, who also is planning a 24-unit, 10-story condo building near Pompano Beach’s oceanfront, described Pompano officials as an
“easier sell.”
“I welcome the project and its residents, but I’d rather have the resort there,” said Parker, who voted in favor of the project anyway.
According to his calculations, several resorts totaling at least 300 rooms sold in the past 18 months. They include the Pier Pointe and 140-unit Villas by the Sea, which developer Minto Communities Inc. of Coconut Creek bought.
Minto’s property sits idle, slowed by the moratorium. A real estate source who spoke on condition of anonymity said only that the developer will build condos there.
Minto executive vice president Harry Posin did not return phone calls.
Parker figures that every resort room produces about 100 customers annually for the town’s business district, with two people per room and the room occupancy changing almost weekly.
Multiply that 100 by a total of about 1,000 resort rooms, and the town gets 100,000 customers a year, Parker said.
“So the 300 resort units we’ve already eliminated is about 20 percent of the resort market, and that’s a big hit to take, and it will accelerate,” he added.
Hanna Karcho, the former owner of the Pier Pointe Resort, did not return a phone call.
The mayor fought the height increase brought by the charter amendment, saying that defeating the change would have preserved the resorts.
He did, though, vote for the new overlay district, “not to encourage townhomes but to encourage redevelopment of resort properties so that they would stay as resorts.”
At the same time, the real estate market has changed to make the resort sites far more valuable to residential developers.
“Resort owners would like us to allow them to build eight- to 10-stories to make them viable as resorts again, and they are probably right,” Parker said. “But if we zoned for eight to 10 stories on the beach, developers would just want to do condos. I suppose we could rezone for the height and prohibit condos.”
How does the town maintain its small-town charm but allow the kind of development that justifies the rising prices that developers are paying for property?
On that, Parker said, “we haven’t made up our mind.”
Terry Sheridan can be reached at tsheridan@floridabiz.com or at (954) 468-2614.
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