A family jewelry business wants to build a luxury retail building on Las Olas Boulevard.
But the five-story, canal-front project has cracked open a familiar dispute that comes with development –– pitting supporters of the growth against longtime residents alarmed by traffic, parking and height. The fault line is especially pronounced in Fort Lauderdale, a city experiencing growth that proponents say is necessary for it to catch up after it was overlooked during South Florida’s boom in the past half-decade.
Weston Jewelers, led by the Dikes family, wants to develop the Arquitectonica-designed building with floor-to-ceiling windows along the Himmershee Canal. It paid $7 million last year for the two-lot property spanning just over a quarter acre at 221-229 Southeast 12th Avenue and 1117-1121 East Las Olas Boulevard in downtown Fort Lauderdale, records show.
Ed and Tracey Dikes opened their first Weston Jewelers 25 years ago at Weston Town Center, eventually adding two outposts at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The three locations will remain open, and the Fort Lauderdale store would be the flagship, legacy building, with brands such as Rolex, Cartier, Omega, Breitling and Chopard, as well as spaces for independent jewelers and a fourth-floor Dikes family office.
After the project got the green light from the planning and zoning board, which voted 4-3 in favor last month, it’s headed to the city commission for a preliminary vote on Tuesday. Final commission vote is expected on June 2.
It’s “much too massive for this small piece of property,” Anthony Battista, president of Villaggio Di Las Olas Condo Association, said at a community meeting on the project this week. “I think we all want first-class business on Las Olas Boulevard. That’s not the question here. The question here is the size of the building. It is massive for the piece of property.”
Weston Jewelers said it’s already worked with neighbors, scrapping two previously planned restaurants and lowering the height from 90 feet to 74 feet. The project would rise to 88 feet total, including mechanical equipment on the roof.
But Weston Jewelers’ plan for zero parking spaces at the project site, even though the code requires 119, has riled neighbors.
Nearby condo buildings are strapped for parking, residents said. It’s an “endemic” problem, Battista said.
But Ed Dikes and his attorney Stephanie Toothaker have argued that public parking lots in the area have enough spaces to accommodate what’s needed for Weston Jewelers, pointing out that the building’s use won’t create demand for very many spots at once. The maximum number of people recorded inside a Weston Jewelers store at once has been 35, including employees, Dikes said.
“In what world would there ever be 119 people in a jewelry store at one time? It doesn’t even make rational sense,” Toothaker said at the meeting.
Other projects along Las Olas have received parking reductions, which speaks to the city’s recognition that the street is largely pedestrian, Toothaker said. The parking code hasn’t been updated to reflect growing use of ride shares, she said.
Jackie Scott, president of the Colee Hammock Homeowners Association, countered that one of those businesses was a restaurant opening in a former eatery’s building, meaning there was no change in use, and that another project actually also built parking for its residential and hotel portion.
Toothaker said she’s negotiating with private parking providers in the area for an agreement to accommodate “more than 40” parking spots for the store. A previous parking agreement fell through, she said, due to “pressure from the community.”
The project’s proposed rezoning of the north lot from “residential” to “commercial” has residents worried that it could portend future similar rezonings, potentially encroaching toward the residential area near Las Olas, neighbors said.
Without the rezoning, Weston Jewelers can build a 150-foot tall highrise by-right on the southern lot, though the five-story building is a better fit for the neighborhood, Toothaker said.
The building’s design draws inspiration from and mirrors the architecture of some of the Colee Hammock homes, Dikes said during the meeting.
Some neighbors suggested the first-floor retail is substituted with a garage or the top floor cut. This can’t be done because the space already is committed to brands and it wouldn’t work for the first-level of a retail building to be parking, Toothaker and Dikes said.
Although it was reported that the jewelry store planned to host brand-sponsored cocktail parties on the third floor of the development, Dikes said all parties and functions hosted by the brands will be off site.
Weston Jewelers picked downtown Fort Lauderdale for its flagship partly because many of its brands suggested the location, and the area’s been attracting more wealth.
“They are calling it the ‘Monaco of Florida’” Dikes said after the meeting, pointing to the city’s growth as a more upscale residential and retail hub. “Everyone wants to see this change occur.”
At the meeting, Battista echoed residents’ notion that they would have liked to partake in the building’s design before it was finalized.
The area, he added, “is not meant to be an overpowering Madison Avenue.”
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