Showing posts with label Block 55. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Block 55. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Hollywood developer Chip Abele's years-long effort to launch #YoungCircleCommons project in Downtown Hollywood, across from The ArtsPark, w/a #HiltonHotel, clears hurdle as Hollywood City Comm. unanimously approves requested changes


Above, my photo from this afternoon of Hollywood developer ​Chip Abele, with a rendering in the Commission Chambers of his proposed tower on U.S.-1/Federal Highway in downtown Hollywood, opposite the SW corner of Young Circle and The ArtsPark, just as the project's changes were unanimously approved by the Hollywood City Commission.

Wednesday September 21, 2016
After the Hollywood City Commission meeting this afternoon I was able to speak with Mr. Abele, above, for a minute in conjunction with getting some better quality copies of the renderings of his tower that are on the city's website, 
for a future blog post about the project and its tangled path to success, some of which I've chronicled in the past on the blog, as well as his many efforts to re-develop the NE corner of Young Circle over the years, all of which have led me to being at meetings at Hollywood City Hall at 2 AM in the past.

On July 24, 2008, I first wrote abiout Mr. Abele and his efforts to develop or re-devlop areas near Young Circle, The WSG/Young Circle ArtsPark Project

I can't help but think of the positive changes that could take place in Hollywood when they eventually get a brand new Publix on the northeast corner of Young CircleBlock 55.
To see more on that redevelopment project, Hollywood Circle, and what developer Chip Abele had once hoped to build then, see my February 19th, 2009 post labeled,
In Hollywood, blighted Block 55 gets a new lease on life as "Hollywood Circle"

On November 1st, 2011, I penned this post about his efforts, 
Wednesday's Hollywood CRA mtg. features Chip Abele's Block 55 LLC/1740 Polk Street project -inc. the new Publix- getting units from RAC for hotel

In my quick discussion with Mr. Abele this afternoon, he says that they aren't planning any sort of formal signing announcement about the Hilton Hotels deal they've made, but reiterated to me that the paperwork had "already been signed."

An upscale hotel in and above downtown Hollywood.
With a swimming pool on top, like the proverbial cherry!
And that pool looked very, very inviting with its amazing views. 

Now, if we could only get some quality Indian and Ethiopian restaurants in downtown 
Hollywood or hereabouts like I'd gotten used to in D.C., and have done without for so long here.
I can't be the only one who notices their absence from the South Florida food scene.

Tonight I'll be attending the Hollywood Mayoral Forum at David Park Community Center at 7 PM, sponsored by the Hollywood Hills Civic Association, not the Hallandale Beach City Comm. meeting.

By the way, I've got some more news to share soon about Comm. Bill Julian and his inability
to NOT continue to engage in questionable ethical behavior that calls into question his basic fitness for office, given his many ethical lapses and misdeeds in the past.
What reasonable people might call a hard-to-ignore "fact pattern."
----
In reverse chron order are my tweets about this news:















Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Wednesday's Hollywood CRA mtg. features Chip Abele's Block 55 LLC/1740 Polk Street project -inc. the new Publix- getting units from RAC for hotel

Above, looking west at Hollywood City Hall. November 1, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Chip Abele's Block 55 LLC/1740 Polk Street project -including a new Publix- looks to be getting an additional 25 units from the RAC for a hotel component.
Wednesday's 10 a.m. Special/Joint Hollywood City Commission/CRA meeting features the return of our old controversial friend, Block 55, who has been the subject of so many posts here, and LONG meetings at Hollywood City Hall for yours truly the past few years.
Like actually running out of memory cards and rechargeable batteries after well over two hours of video-recording LONG.

And, of course, the city will likely be pulling the financial plug on the Holocaust Documentation Center.

I had planned on being at this meeting but won't be able to attend after all.

Here's the two agenda items for Block 55:

Proposed modifications will result in the following thresholds:
397 residential units
104 hotel rooms (52 residential units)
15,000 sq ft (approx.) ground floor retail/office
46,031 sq ft (approx.) regional grocery chain (Publix)
941 car parking garage including grocery chain

Proposed building height are as follows:
Publix- 24’ (2 stories)
Parking garage- 94’ (8 stories)
Hotel- 114’ (10 stories)
Residential buildings range from - 224’ (22 stories) to 266’ (25 stories)

Looking northwest on Tyler Street -north of the Publix. At left is the two condo towers comprising Hollywood's former #1 condo-mania case study, The Radius, off of U.S.-1 -with Starbucks on the ground floor. On the right is the much-older Town House Apt. complex and the advertising billboard on the Abele property, both of which which will be knocked down. November 1, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

A much closer view of the shot above looking northwest from Tyler Street. November 1, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Even closer, peeking over the fence, looking northwest from Tyler Street. November 1, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Looking due north over the fence towards Polk Street. November 1, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Looking northeast over the fence on Tyler, with the Hollywood Beach Country Club & Golf Resort two blocks north in the distance. November 1, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Looking due south on Tyler Street towards Equity One's Young Circle Shopping Center retail complex, which includes a Publix, Walgreens, Subways and a news stand among other things. (The latter being where I used to buy the Daily Business Review.) November 1, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Looking northeast from the south side of Tyler Street towards N. 17th Street. November 1, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


The Street View on Google Maps looking northwest from the intersection of Tyler Street and N. 17th Street, Hollywood, FL.

The regular Hollywood City Commission meeting is at 1 p.m.

FYI: In case you have had this problem in the past, too, I was at Hollywood City Hall Tuesday afternoon and happened to have the chance to talk to City Clerk Patricia Cerny about some problems this past summer with the online agendas and video archives NOT activating unless you use Internet Explorer -a problem I've previously mentioned here at the blog- which she didn't know anything about but has promised she'd investigate.

It's not unlike the problem the Broward County Commission used to have a few years ago with streaming of their meetings.
You could only do it using Internet Explorer, but there wasn't anything on the website saying so. Now you can watch them at home or work using other browsers.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Successor to Ed Marko? Broward School Board's 2nd round of interviews with General Counsel applicants set for Monday, after Integrity workshop


The Legal Services Committee of the Broward County School Board will meet on Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. -or the conclusion of the scheduled 1 p.m. workshop- in the
11th Floor Large Conference Room of their high-rise HQ at 600 S.E. 3rd Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, for the purpose of conducting the second round of interviews with applicants seeking to replace Ed Marko as General Counsel, a position he's held since LBJ was president.
Really.

Think about that.


Who, other than a person like Rep. John Dingell, who has been in Congress since the first term of President Eisenhower, succeeding his own father, who'd been elected in 1932, could possibly think that having the same person in place for well over 40 years was a satisfactory way of doing things?

Well, that is, unless you're a South American dictator, though to be factual, Marko was in his position in Broward many years before Pinochet was in power in Chile.

I found out about this meeting when I saw a small ad about it in Saturday's Miami Herald at the top of p. 6B.

But as has become a very bad habit with the the Herald the past six months, despite the fact that the public notice ads they are paid to run are also supposed to be posted at their online announcement page, http://newspaperads.miami.com/ROP/Subcat.aspx?cat=3328&subcat=3349 this ad was not.

And now that I think of it, neither, initially, was one I saw in Thursday's paper on p. 5B about an
important Hollywood City Commission meeting on the 27th at 6 p.m. about the long-running drama that is Block 55, the property of developer Chip Abele and his Block 55, LLP group.
That's the NE corner of Young Circle and the once-and-possible future home of a the new Publix and condo tower.
http://newspaperads.miami.com/ROP/Subcat.aspx?cat=3328


I eventually found the Hollywood ad and in a few days, will run it here along with some news about what's going on there.


Which is why I had to take a photograph of the ad -at top- instead of simply reproducing a clearer version of the ad here so everyone would know what's afoot.

My previous posts on the topic of Marko's successor were from July 13th:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/mea-culpa-on-marko-meeting-its.html
and July 12th http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/mea-culpa-on-marko-meeting-its.html

-----


The Broward School Board's three-headed "Integrity" committee released its final report on Friday the 17th.
Did you see any reporting about it locally, in print or on TV?
I sure didn't, and I was looking!

And that was supposed to be a big deal, remember?

The final recommendations will be discussed on Monday the 20th at the 1 p.m. Board workshop preceding the post-Marko era interviews I alluded to above.


The final "Integrity" report is here:
http://browardschoolsintegrity.org/core/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Complete-Report-as-a-PDF3.pdf

------

BrowardBeat
Deals With Insiders Continue At School Board
By Buddy Nevins

The Broward School Board might be suffering financially, but work must go on.

That includes deals with insiders.

The School Board is scheduled on Tuesday to renew a multi-million dollars lease for a 115,000-square-foot office building in Sunrise owned by the Stiles Corporation though two limited partnerships.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.browardbeat.com/deals-with-insiders-continue-at-school-board/

------

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
South Florida Schools blog

Outside firm says school auditors doing a great job

Much of the recent talk—the last year or so—about the Broward School District’s Office of the Chief Auditor comes with a footnote to findings that stir up controversy and criticism.

Well, here’s some good news for the addendum: District auditors received high marks from an outside peer review.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/educationblog/2010/09/outside_firm_says_school_audit.html

-----

See also: http://akilahjohnson.com/ and
http://twitter.com/akjohnson2