Showing posts with label Brian Bandell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brian Bandell. Show all posts

Thursday, March 17, 2022

Temporary placeholder for The Related Group's preposterous plan to ruin Hollywood Beach forever in exchange for a few dollars that won't actually lower anyone's taxes, contrary to Related's simple-minded assertions


I'm still working on my account of what took place all day Wednesday at Hollywood City Hall.

Both in front of the cameras and the public as well as online and below-the-radar regarding The Related Group's preposterous effort to build an incompatible 26-story luxury condo tower for multi-millionaires on PUBLIC LAND on #HollywoodBeach, so I'm leaving this collection of my Wednesday morning, afternoon and evening tweets here as a placeholder, to let you know that I'll have something here on Friday that will be full of facts, insight and ideas you can't find anywhere else in South Florida.

The lack of media attention this issue generated on local Miami TV stations in terms of LIVE reports from the scene or on 11 pm newscasts, and the general sense of incuriosity at The Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun Sentinel, is just a sign of what has happened to any pretense that this was a major media market for serious news coverage. It isn't any longer, and hasn't been true for at least 15 years.

Too many local reporters in South Florida seem to aspire to be well-paid publicists for large companies, and deal with life at an arms-length. The sooner many of them resign or retire from "journalism" the better off everyone here will be.

I should have something up here on the blog and on my Facebook page Saturday by Noon.








South Florida Business Journal
Related Group returns to Hollywood with smaller proposal for oceanfront condo

By Brian Bandell  –  Senior Reporter, South Florida Business Journal
March 16, 2022

The Related Group will make another attempt at winning approval to build a condo on a public beach site in Hollywood, but the terms of the deal and size of the project have been revised.

The City Commission declined to move the project forward Feb. 3 during a long hearing featuring hours of public comments mostly against the project. On March 16, the City Commission will vote on the 99-year lease and development deal with revised terms. Four of the five commissioners must agree.

Read the rest of the article at:

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South Florida Sun Sentinel
Editorial
Reject Hollywood high-rise condos, once and for all

March 16, 2022

Hollywood City Commissioner Caryl Shuham told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board that public comments continue to run roughly 10 to 1 against a proposed deal for a private high-rise condominium complex on the city's public beachfront.

That's no surprise.

Six weeks ago, the commission nearly killed the deal at 3 a.m. after 10 hours of discussion. But enough commissioners gave Related Group of Florida and the city another chance to make the agreement work better for the city.

It still doesn't work well enough.


Read the rest of the editorial at:
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/editorials/fl-op-edit-related-hollywood-condo-project-20220315-qizwwmz72veozhfdzgnup5klse-story.html

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https://www.change.org/p/hollywood-city-commission-hollywood-residents-opposed-to-high-rise-on-public-land-at-azalea-terrace




Thursday, September 19, 2019

Can development and historic Downtown #HollywoodFL co-exist? Current public pushback against possible demolition of a historic Hollywood Bank Bldg. to make way for the Soleste Hollywood project, makes one wonder whether it can or not

Can development and historic Downtown #HollywoodFL co-exist? 
Current public pushback against possible demolition of a historic Hollywood Bank Bldg. to make way for the Soleste Hollywood project, makes one wonder whether it can or not

* The Blogger blog template is acting strange today and seems to arbitrarily changing some of my text and making it all capitalized instead of showing it as I wrote it..

This hasn't happened to me in a number of years but unfortunately, there's nothing I can do to fix it, having already tried five times, and even moved the page and reposted it.
But each result is the same. It looks like it's just a glitch I'm stuck with today. :-(


I first heard about this proposed project on the NW corner of Hollywood Blvd. & N. 20th Avenue from seeing the Technical Advisory Comm. agenda on the Sunshine bulletin board at Hollywood City Hall well over a week ago, then got confirmation of it late last Thursday afternoon. 

That is to say, while everyone in town was still very irate about Broward County's self-evident lack of appropriate disclosures of important info to the City of Hollywood re the 911 Emergency Services radio antenna tower at West Lake Park.
I have spent lots of hours writing about that and had planned on posting an update earlier this week, but I've held off on that because of the pending lawsuit between the City of Hollywood and Broward County, where, in my opinion, the county will have many questions to answer from a judge that I don't think any reasonably fair judge is going to be very satisfied or happy with.

Last Friday, Brian Bandell of the South Florida Business Journal had the story, one of three he did yesterday about Hollywood. It's the subject of the second one, regarding the Sun Trust Office Building, at 2001 Hollywood Blvd., where it was once the Hollywood State Bank, opening on February 4, 1924 and founded by Joseph W. Young, Hollywood's founder and first mayor.
But it is now also the site of the projected Seleste Hollywood project, a 350-unit mixed-use development that's got everyone talking.
And depending upon when you talk to them, firmly on one side or the other of the argument.

Or, as is typical in many parts of South Florida, on both sides of the issue, wanting to be on the side of the angels while being on neither side.





According to docs filed with the city, the developer is projecting to be finished in April of 2022.

I received this email, below, written by Hollywood Historical Society Vice President Clive Taylor early Saturday night from a friend and fellow Hollywood civic activist who is par of the group in town behind many worthwhile efforts, Friends of Hollywood Florida Inc.
https://www.facebook.com/FriendsofHollywoodFlorida/

I've deleted most of the dozens of people who were recipients of it prior to my receiving it from a friend. It appears exactly as written, with no changes or corrections made to it.

The architect for Seleste HollywoodModis Architects, LLC of South Miami, has renderings at its website: http://www.modisarchitects.com/portfolio/soleste-at-hollywood-blvd/


----- Forwarded Message -----







From: Clive Taylor <clive_taylor@bellsouth.net>
To: Josh Levy <jlevy@hollywoodfl.org>; Caryl Shuham <cshuham@hollywoodfl.org>; Peter Hernandez <phernandez@hollywoodfl.org>; Dick Blatner <rblattner@hollywoodfl.org>; Tracy Callari <tcallari@hollywoodfl.org>; Kevin Biederman <kbiederman@hollywoodfl.org>; Linda Sherwood <lsherwood@hollywoodfl.org>; Wazir Ishmael <wishmael@hollywoodfl.org>

Sent: Saturday, September 14, 2019, 12:10:34 PM EDT
Subject: Possible Demolition Historic Hollywood Bank Building

Good Morning Mayor, Commissioners, and City Manager,

It's ironic the National Trust is celebrating Historic Downtowns as we contemplate losing yet another important component of our own Historic Downtown.
We are the only city in Florida listed on the national register as having an intact historic downtown and our downtown is designated a historic district.

Despite this important fact we have allowed developers to slowly chip away at our history in the very heart of our city, our Historic downtown.
I used to be very proud of the fact that we had this designation and the fact that so many of our early structures are still standing.

But I am now getting despondent at our future.

We are losing most of the Great southern and just recently the city approved the demo of a very important Bayard Lukens structure on Hollywood Blvd in downtown.
The city's own guidelines state that in the historic district demolition is only to be considered as a last resort if no other options are available to save the structure.
The building now being considered for demo  was the financial heart of early  Hollywood. 
Opening in 1924 it provided much needed capital to new investors and residents moving to the new city.
It was until very recently the oldest continually operating bank site in the county.
This bank never closed during the depression.

It was designed by Rubbish & Hunter the same firm that designed many of Hollywood early structures including the Young Mansion. 
Many buildings have been lost over the years and many visitors and residents respect and want to celebrate our unique historical heritage.

When you travel or visit a new city ask yourself would you like to see the new section or would you like to visit the historic district?
One day our city will not have a historic district to visit and that's a very sad thought for the residents of Hollywood and to the memory of our Founder Joseph Wesley Young.

Think about that when you consider what's happening to our history while you are  in office.

Remember that fact when you visit the historic south beach district or  the biltmore hotel or the breakers  or any other area that had to fight hard to keep these treasures standing.

I am not anti growth I welcome the new development coming to our city bringing new residents for business to enjoy but not at the expense of our history.

Joe Young laid out his  dream city "Hollywood by The Sea"  almost 100 years ago. These are his buildings, his legacy, our legacy, please don't allow this to happen while you've  been elected to represent the residents the city.

The Hollywood Historical Society  erected a bust of our  founder on Young Circle which states" his vision and courage  created this city" it's ironic he's looking right down Historic Hollywood  Blvd business district  and in the distance  is city hall where the politicians developers and employees will decide  yet again if another one of his buildings gets torn down.

Clive Taylor
VP Hollywood Historical Society

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Subsequent to my receiving this letter written by Clive Taylor, which generated an intense response and amount of attention via emails and text messages criss-crossing by civic activists and regular citizens on various Social media platforms, including the one that I don't use, Facebook, came news about this item being on the agenda for this past Monday's Techanical Advisory Comm. meeting.
I knew from an email from Brian Bandell over the weekend that the developer had requested that the item be pulled from the meeting, which it was.
(I attended the meeting and found out lots of interesting things about other development projects in the city, including an out-of-the-box plan for something on Tyler Street, but that will have to wait for another blog post.)

For what it's worth, there are many well-connected and deeply-involved people in Hollywood civic affairs who believe that there has been MORE public misinformation posted to Facebook than ever before regarding matters of interest to Hollywood citizens and business owners, especially since before last year's GO Bond issue vote in November.
These same people lament that people whom they believe ought to know better, are simply playing emotional games in their postings to Facebook rather than relying on facts, logic and reason because... well, it's easier.
Much easier than making sound arguments for or against an issue.

Which only makes me wonder if these same people know how hard it was for me for years to be telling the truth over-and-over when the South Florida news media largely ignored the corruption and incompetency going on at Hallandale Beach City Hall when it was in the firm grasp of shallow, thin-skinned Mayor Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew, who thought nothing of lying on the record in front of TV cameras and their own cameras in the Commission Chambers. 

There was far more than a quorum of elected officials and high-paid bureaucrats there who consciously and consistently lied behind-the-scenes and in front of people's faces, who'd even deny things that they themselves had previously said or done and knew were not true at the time because they'd already been given the actual facts by their own staff, consultants or by Broward County or the State of Florida. 
And still these officials would lie and deny what they knew or what was self-evident...
That's how deep the public corruption and antipathy to the public was there.

In case you need a reminder, consider this, via a series of tweets today by me re the situation in Hallandale Beach in 2010, precipitated by something a reporter at Washington, D.C. area NPR affiliate wrote about something in... yes, Sweden, which I'd written about nine years ago on these pages






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From my blog post of SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2010 
Our friend, Hastighetslotteriet, or The Speed Camera Lottery: The fun theory works in Stockholm, but NOT in Joy Cooper's Hallandale Beach, Red-light Camera Central
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/our-friend-hastighetslotteriet-or-speed.html


Dave 
David B. Smith 

Thursday, May 2, 2019

Latest news and analysis re (updated) Young Circle Roadway Project in #HollywoodFL will be on Friday afternoon! Hint: Hollywood residents and Downtown Hollywood Small Business owners continue to be dumbstruck about the CRA's attrocious public engagement effort of the past three years.

Updated May 4th - Have been trying to get my hands on some video of the consultant's public presentation Tuesday night and to the Hollywood CRA Wednesday morning so that everything that I've written here would make more sense after you've gotten both Points of Views.
Unfortunately, looks like I will not have that up until after Noon on Monday the 6by. 

Sorry for the delay.

My blog post about Tuesday night's public presentation of the Young Circle Roadway Project at the Lippman Multi-purpose Community Center, and, the expanded presentation made by the consultant on Wednesday morning at Hollywood City Hall before the Hollywood CRA Board of Directors, i.e. the Hollywood City Commission, will be up on my blog after lunch on Friday, sometime after 1 pm.

Check it out when you can and learn how truly dumbstruck so many concerned and well-informed Hollywood residents and Downtown Hollywood Small Business owners continue to be about the Hollywood CRA's attrocious public engagement effort of the past three years, which has been much-discussed on this blog with increasing degrees of incredulity.
That is, an "effort" that has been completely inadequate to the task of properly vetting this ill-considered and poorly-designed plan publicly "supported" by... the same pseudo-civic and business groups and about two dozen people who show up at most of Hollywood's myriad civic meeting. 
(I know because I'm one of them.)

But diversity and different points of view? Well, no, not so much. 
I've not really seen that at any of the many meetings about this subject that I've gone to the past three years.

The consultant preaches to the choir of people who want to believe in "experts" and dismisses all logical questions by people with open minds and a critical eye. 
And anyone who thinks the plan actually doesn't solve the problems that people in Hollywood would like to see addressed.
Someone like me.

The Young Circle Roadway Project is certainly NOT supported by the great number of people you should expect for a project of such magnitude, one that has the real potential, if adopted and implemented, to permanently ruin dozens of struggling Young Circle businesses, as consumers and residents choose to permanently change their current consumer buying and behavioral habits because of what will not only be endless construction, but their simple and understandable belief that it's far better to drive north or south via cut-thru's in local neighborhoods, the last thing people need, rather than drive single-file thru a gantlet of round-abouts on US-1 that the consultant describes like the magic beans in "Jack and the Beanstalk."

And late this afternoon came the following news fromn our friend Brian Bandell, South Florida's number one real estate reporter:




Not good news.



Saturday, December 1, 2018

Recent Development & Real Estate issues in Downtown Hollywood and in Hallandale Beach, per Whiskey Tango closing, the same empty storefronts year-after-year, and the proposed SLS resort at the Diplomat Golf Course

Recent Development/Real Estate and business issues in Downtown Hollywood and in Hallandale Beach... per Whiskey Tango closing, the same empty storefronts year-after-year, and the proposed SLS resort at the Diplomat Golf Course. What are the city's respective CRAs really doing? 



Updated Monday December 3rd, 2018 2:00 pm
My plan over the Thanksgiving Weekend, besides eating lots of turkey and fixings and catching up on a lot of films and TV shows on DVD while I'm out-of-town in Central Florida visiting my Mom, was to post some cogent and overdue thoughts to my blog about the increasing level of frustration and anxiety -and desperation.

I've been hearing since last year from many Downtown Hollywood Business owners and store managers I know and have gained the confidence of thru my various activities in the area, including writing this fact-filled blog.
Concerned people who have sought me out to listen to them in-person or over the phone or via emails so that they can vent about what they see -and aren't seeing but have been expecting: tangible positive results.
Or to be factual, MORE tangible positive results, and not so much back-sliding and one-step forward and two-steps backwards.

They talk to me in part because they think that the titular heads of various interest groups in the city are not listening to them or seeing things their way, even though the issues are self-evident.
That direct communication is one of the advantages that I've gained over the years of writing my blog and being so deeply involved in so many things going on locally and in the region... For having developed a solid reputation around here for being honest, well-informed, and not being one who'd settle for either mediocrity or top-down leadership "wisdom."

But then I heard this week about Brian Bandell's article in the South Florida Business Journal about the Whiskey Tango on Hollywood Blvd. and 19th Avenue and why it'll be closing, and I'm now sensing that something MUCH more substantial is going to be required than what I planned.
See the back-and-forth between Brian and myself on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/hbbtruth/status/1067513381110931456








Many people I speak with are very disappointed and frustrated with what they see and the general unwillingness of the people in charge to confront problems head-on.
The people I speak with think that some major changes may be needed in some places if the Downtown Hollywood area is ever going to get out of its current holding pattern.

Specifically, this concerns the direction and effectiveness of the Downtown Hollywood CRA under Jorge Camejo and the various "business" groups in the Hollywood area who sometimes seem to lack a certain amount of hubris or dynamism, and who, to both me and many of the business owners I'm talking about, appear unnecessarily condescending or patronizing to the public and their own members when asked to honestly explain what's going on -or isn't

And speaking of holding patterns, it's just as bad if not worse in Hallandale Beach, where so many residents and Small Business owners have bemoaned to me all the empty business parcels on US-1/Federal Highway and Hallandale Beach Blvd. that were once going concerns, if not exactly thriving businesses. 

The best example of several? The site of the former Kelly Chevrolet dealership, on the west side of the street between N.E. 6th & 7th Streets, which is now south and across the street from the new Atlantic Village retail area that at least offers a hope that things there may turn around if people give the new retailers an opportunity. 


Above via Google Maps, looking south from US-1/Federal Highway and N.E. 7th Street. I've been taking photos of this large empty lot for the past 15 years... and thinking about all the missed opportunities that have come and gone while the City of Hallandale Beach and its CRA have watched from the sidelines.


Above via Google Maps, looking south from US-1/Federal Highway and N.E. 7th Street.   

This property, which is located within the Hallandale Beach CRA, has been empty for at least 15 years, despite its location just a few blocks south of what was the Hollywood Dog Track/the Mardi Gras Casino/The Big Easy Casino. Why? 
Why is this large property that could be re-imagined in any number of interesting ways that could be good for the city and its residents was never brought up at any of the hundreds of HB CRA meetings I've attended the past 15 years?
It's one of the largest elephants in the room that is HB, and yet nothing but silence from anyone at HB City Hall.It's grating!  

For those Hollywood Small Business owners and managers I've been speaking with, especially the ones who listen to a lot of NPR in South Florida via WLRN-FM, there's a certain amount of frustration and more than a little incredulous irony when they continually hear the paid promos for the Hollywood CRA on that station airs during their newscasts, talking about the wonders of locating a business to Downtown Hollywood. 
They wonder to themselves, "But where are the tangible results for me? Why, years later, do I STILL have so many empty storefronts near me? What's going on?" 

The SW corner of the intersection of Hollywood Blvd. and 19th Avenue with the re-imagined Mona Lisa mural has been vacant for over... ten years!


Real question: How can the Hollywood CRA keep promoting this iconic mural above which has not had a paying tenant below it longer than many people I know have lived in Hollywood? Do they not appreciate the irony of what they're saying?




And across the street from the mural on the NW corner, above, Via Google Maps, the front of Whiskey Tango, probably taken in the morning before they opened, since the east side bar area was always half-full anytime I walked by or walked in.
And now that it will be closing, what will be there and when will THAT open? And will it be even one-third as successful? 
Draw even one-third the number of people to Downtown Hollywood that it consistently did?


Instead of posting those thoughts of mine today, I'm going to delay those for a few days to add some more useful context, since if there's anything that seems to be lacking in the larger public discussion about what is going on in Downtown Hollywood and the Young Circle area, now and in the immediate future, it's informed context based on facts.
People who DO know things who are either afraid to speak publicly now about what they know or fear for various reasons -including the collective pressure that exits right now for Small Business owners in the Downtown Hollywood area to stay on the same page and sing from the same hymnal.
That includes, of course, NOT wanting to break away from the herd and make themselves future targets of retribution.

But in this as in so many issues in Broward County, especially in Hollywood and Hallandale Beach, we've seen that this adherence to conventional wisdom that is clearly NOT working most of the time, is actually chafing lots of people, most notably, the actual stakeholders actually employing people and paying taxes to the city who thought and think that they ought to have a little more say-so about what's going on -or isn't.

I will have a more complete post on development issues in Hollywood and Hallandale Beach the coming week.

Looking east towards Young Circle from Hollywood Blvd., July 2018.

As an aside, some of you who have not heard from me in a bit should expect to be hearing from me over the next few days about another matter that I've spoken to many of you about already over the past few weeks, namely, following-up with various businesses, companies, medical groups, legal practices, restaurants and hotels' interest in advertising on my blog for a very reasonable price, starting at just $90 a month.
That's a clear bargain relative to what the market is currently charging hereabouts, especially those platforms that charge a lot more and do not have audited numbers, no less.

For the record, for 2018, I'm averaging between 25,000 and 30,000 page views a month. :-)

Obviously, I'm always interested in talking to anyone in the area who'd be interested in advertising on my popular blog to reach the army of well-informed consumers, civic activists and Small Business owners who read it, like so many you, to say nothing of those of you who are actually #influencers, and can't go an hour without posting 
something original and compelling to Social Media that gets people talking.

IF you or someone you know might be interested in exploring this opportunity to differentiate your business from your competition, check out this link and drop me a line and I'll be happy to follow-up with you or them right away so that ad can be up ASAP.

Let's do some business this week and get your product or service in front of the tens of thousands of eyeballs that come to my blog every month!






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Per the article below, in case you can't get your bearings, the aerial POV of the rendering below is of what was the Diplomat Golf Course is looking southwest from roughly Atlantic Shores Blvd.

Naturally, me being me, influencer extraordinaire, :-)  I got tagged in Brian Bandell's tweet, since he usually tags me in most Hollywood and Hallandale Beach development and real estate stories he writes for the South Florida Business Journal. Brian knows from experience that I know what's what fact-wise, know where the bodies are buried, and what other facts and context can and should be added to the public conversation before everything is done.

In general I feel that if something is going to be there with that large a footprint, esp. cars on already#FDOT F-rated #HallandaleBeach Blvd., part of why the Broward County Commission nixed an even larger un-related plan there 9 years ago -the Diplomat LAC plan- that was rushed to approval by the HB City Commission just days before Christmas at a meeting where it did not come up on the public agenda until nearly 10 pm on purpose to cause residents to leave and NOT speak against it -when I was one of the persons leading the effort to fight it- it's a real plus that a firm like @SLSHotels, with a very good reputation for promotion and marketing savvy is going to be running it.
I've stayed at other SLS properties and they are sublime in many cases, my favorite adjective.
They especially know how to promote and advertise stylish places, a word that hasn't accurately described this property since I returned to South Florida in late 2003 from Washington, D.C..
The lack of attention to marketing basics was actually one of my principal arguments against that previous  plan, to the dismay of the Diplomat Hotel's general manager at the time, when I mentioned in very pointed comments before the Broward County Commission -with him sitting directly behind me- how weird it was that the people who owned and managed it did such a piss-poor job of promoting it.
Even now, you can't find a single directional street sign for it anywhere between I-95 or US-1 or A1A and the property itself.
You know that I'm a big believer in showing effort and doggedness, so the fact that the Diplomat couldn't or wouldn't do something so easy speaks volumes for why I've wanted them out
for years.
 🏖️🌴🌊⛳️




The owner of the Diplomat Hotel wants to build three hotel towers and one residential tower on its golf course in Hallandale Beach.
https://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2018/11/06/broward-to-get-its-first-sls-resort.html