Inside the story can we include Maria and Richard Meruelo, with the property at 5101 Pine Tree Drive?
Billionaire Russell Weiner is building a waterfront estate in Miami Beach, three years after he began acquiring some of Pine Tree Drive’s largest properties.
But development of the lots has some neighbors raising red flags about the construction process and the preservation of historic structures on the site, they told The Real Deal.
Weiner, the founder of Rockstar Energy and a real estate investor, spent about $1 million gutting and relocating a 1920s estate on the property at 5011 Pine Tree Drive. There, he plans a new 30,000-square-foot main mansion. Two doors down, at 5111 Pine Tree Drive, he plans to build a guest estate. The entire project is expected to cost more than $100 million, the Wall Street Journal reported last year.
The house at 5011 Pine Tree Drive, known as the Collins estate, was determined to be architecturally significant in 2020 — before Weiner acquired the two properties.
That means the Miami Beach Design Review Board had to sign off on the construction of a new home associated with the renovation and relocation of the existing architecturally significant house. The board approved the plans under the property’s previous owners, Perpetual Love 5011 Residence Trust, which was controlled by David and Leila Centner, in late 2020.
In July 2021, the Centners sold the two properties, which total nearly 3.5 acres, to Weiner for more than $35 million.
Two months later, Weiner bought the note on Richard and Maria Meruelo’s property at 5101 Pine Tree Drive, which is in the middle of Weiner’s lots. The previous lender had already initiated a foreclosure case against the Meruelos. The home is wrapped up in the Meruelos’ complicated and lengthy divorce. Richard Meruelo and Maria Meruelo did not respond to requests for comment.
In the summer of 2022, a year after Weiner acquired the two Pine Tree Drive properties, Florida House Bill 423 went into effect. The law supersedes local governments from restricting or regulating the demolition of single-family homes that are built below a certain height. Homes designated historic before January 2022 were exempt, but the Pine Tree Drive property is not historic.
Still, the preservation of these structures is required if the property owner takes advantage of zoning incentives, including greater lot coverage and reduced setbacks.
Complex construction
Weiner has been using a private provider and a phased permit for some of the construction. Florida law allows property owners to use private providers to review plans and perform inspections that the city would otherwise handle. That person has to be a licensed engineer or architect or someone who holds a standard certificate under Florida law.
Part of the work included preserving and relocating the architecturally significant structure at 5011 Pine Tree Drive to the western portion of that lot. The Collins estate was designed by architect Russell Pancoast and built in the 1920s by Irving Collins, a son of Miami Beach founding father John Collins. The relocation of the Collins estate was documented last year by the Miami Design Preservation League.
A group of anonymous neighbors allege that Weiner used loopholes to build without a master permit. Construction began last year, but only on Sept. 9 did Weiner secure a full building permit for one of the properties, the northern lot at 5111 Pine Tree Drive. A city spokesperson said that Florida’s building code allows property owners to begin construction using a phased permit “without any assurance that a building permit will be granted.”
That’s usually riskier, because the property owner would have to redo work that the city deems unacceptable, and it is not guaranteed that a final permit would be granted. Weiner’s phased permit for 5111 Pine Tree Drive was closed after the full building permit was issued Sept. 9, according to the city.
The neighbors point to alleged forgery of a notarized notice of commencement filed with Miami-Dade County earlier this year. Such notices typically mark the start of construction, and are secured in conjunction with a building permit in the property’s respective municipality.
Two of the notices of commencement for 5111 Pine Tree Drive appear as if they are photocopies of each other, neighbors allege, with two exceptions: the description of work and the permit numbers. The notice for a new single-family home was recorded with Miami-Dade in January of this year, months after it was signed.
Both were notarized by attorney William Riley Jr., who also represented the properties’ previous owners, David and Leila Centner. Riley did not respond to a request for comment. Last year, he was arrested on felony charges of bribery, money laundering, criminal conspiracy and unlawful compensation or reward for official behavior tied to an alleged scheme funneling illegal payments and campaign contributions to former Miami city commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla on behalf of Riley’s client, the Centners’ Centner Academy.
A spokesperson for the Miami-Dade County’s Recorder’s office said the notary’s commission was valid and the documents were valid at the time they were recorded with the county. But the county said it’s up to the submitter to record the document, not the county or city. “We would not be able to provide an explanation as to why there was a delay between the signing of the document and its eventual submission for recording,” the spokesperson said.
“The most important part about the story is I saved the Collins estate at great expense, time and energy. I did this to preserve the incredible history of Miami Beach,” Weiner wrote in an email to The Real Deal. “I could have torn it down and chose to do this for the future of the city.”
He declined to answer additional questions.
Weiner, who Forbes estimates is worth $5.2 billion, is using some of the same team put in place by the previous owners, the Centners.
The Collins estate has a permit for structural work and the relocation of the existing house. It also has a permit under review, which has not been issued, for a new house to be built on the eastern, waterfront portion of 5011 Pine Tree Drive.
On the northern parcel at 5111 Pine Tree Drive, construction was allowed to begin under the phased permit regulations, according to the city of Miami Beach. The permit number on the notice of commencement for a new single-family home, dated June 2023, only was submitted to the county in January of this year. It matches the permit that was finally issued Sept. 9, as TRD was reporting on the story.
Looking ahead
Weiner still does not control the property at 5101 Pine Tree Drive, court records show. If he is able to foreclose, he will be able to legally connect only two of the three lots under a unity of title.
The anonymous neighbors are alleging that very little remains of the original, architecturally significant structures, which Weiner denies. Restoring these buildings is complicated, and what is deemed acceptable is subjective.
The city of Miami Beach requires that “significant exterior architectural characteristics, features, or details” of the structure remain intact, and that the exterior reflects the style and period when it was originally built.
Daniel Ciraldo, executive director of the Miami Design Preservation League, said the property owner is able to do more work on the original structure than if it had been designated historic.
“When this sort of really intensive construction is done, there comes a point where things are replaced and reconstructed. … No one said this would be perfectly put back together,” he said. “I’m hopeful once it’s finished it’s going to look like a Mediterranean structure from the ‘20s.”
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Divorce, foreclosure and an $18M offer: Inside the saga on Pine Tree Drive
