A 15-story Live Local Act project in South Beach is headed for a vote, as controversy stirs in the city and the rest of South Florida over the state law.
The Miami Beach Planning Board on May 5 will take up the proposal for a 29-unit building with 3,500 square feet of offices and 35 parking spaces at 1826 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, Floridian Development reported. Although Live Local Act developments can bypass municipal votes, a request for a conditional use permit for a mechanical car elevator for vehicle storage triggered a board review for the project.
An entity managed by Mendy Chudaitov of Lefferts, with offices in Miami and New York, and Russell Galbut of Miami-based Crescent Heights and GFO Investments owns the lot, which spans less than a quarter of an acre.
The proposed car elevator is likely due to the small lot, with the developer proposing the valet-operated elevator instead of a typical garage.
Of the 29 apartments, 12 will be at workforce or affordable rents, aligning with the Live Local Act’s mandate that at least 40 percent of units are for households earning no more than 120 percent of the area median income.
Under the state law, municipalities are required to administratively approve Live Local projects as long as they meet certain requirements. Aside from the affordability mandate, they also have to be slated for lots zoned as mixed-use, commercial or industrial. At this year’s Florida legislative session, lawmakers expanded this to also include land owned by counties, municipalities and school districts.
In South Beach, home to historic low-rise Art Deco buildings, Live Local proposals have proven contentious.
Most recently, a developer sued the city of Miami Beach, alleging it’s blocking a planned Live Local redevelopment of the Bancroft Hotel at 1501 Collins Avenue and adjacent Ocean Steps retail complex. The developer entity is managed by Todd Rosenberg of Boca Raton-based Pebb Capital, which partnered with Coconut Grove-based Maxwelle Real Estate Group, led by Richard Weisfisch, and Galbut on the project.
Outside of Live Local, uproar has erupted in Miami Beach over billionaire Jeffrey Soffer’s proposal for a steel-and-aluminum waterslide tower at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach, with some commissioners and residents concerned it would increase traffic on already congested streets and turn the area into a water park town. State lawmakers this session approved legislation that would allow Soffer’s Fontainebleau Development to bypass the city historic preservation board for approval.
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