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Showing posts with label Chateau Square. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chateau Square. Show all posts

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Again? Hallandale Beach City Commission grants ANOTHER deferral for Chateau Group LLC's twin 40-story retail/condo project on US-1 and Hallandale Beach Blvd.

All original photos on this page by me, South Beach Hoosier. (c) 2016 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.


UNStudio in The Netherlands and BC Architects are listed as architects of record for the project.

 Today I've got the latest installment of my regular series of blog posts about what's going on in Hallandale Beach with the Chateau Group LLC's Chateau Square project that would erect TWO 40-story buildings with a large retail and hotel complex at the corner of U.S.-1 and Hallandale Beach Blvd., which could actually make the city's notoriously-bad and gridlocked traffic even worse.
Especially during the annual invasion into southeast Broward County by tens of thousands of Canadians from Ontario and Quebec, known around here as "the season," which has just begun, as suddenly, like every year, nearly one-third-to one-fourth of every car you see in Hallandale Beach or Hollywood east of I-95 is from Quebec or Ontario.

On Wednesday night at 6:30 PM, after many months of delays, the Hallandale Beach City Commission was scheduled to debate the matter for the first of two required votes on the project that so many Hallandale Beach residents are gravely concerned about.

 Well, would you believe that last night, at a sparsely-attended public meeting of the 
Hallandale Beach City Commission, they voted to grant yet ANOTHER deferral for 
the Chateau Group LLC's proposed twin 40-story retail/condo project on US-1 and Hallandale Beach Blvd. 

By my count, this is at least the third deferral for this project of its first of two required readings by the HB City Commission.
After all these years of attending meetings at HB City Hall, and the routines that take place before and during the meeting, I should have guessed that something was amiss when I didn't see developer attorney Debbie Orshefsky working the room before the meeting started.
But I was busy talking to people myself, as usual.

No reason was given for the request for the deferral by the developer and no date was given as the next opportunity for Chateau Group LLC to persuade the community and its elected officials why they should change the rules for them in such an egregious way.
I'm already following up on what I'm hearing about the real reason for thems seeking the deferral, but can't share with you what I'm hearing - right now

As many of you know, last night was also longtime Hallandale Beach City Commissioner William "Bill" Julian's last meeting as a HB Commissioner, something that I have wanted to say and write for many, many years.
Rather deliciously, Julian made a motion to delay the swearing-in ceremony for newly-elected Commissioner Anabelle Taub, who convincingly defeated him, until December 7th. But he lost on the motion 4-1, so the big day remains Monday November 28th.

A day to finally breathe the sweet air of freedom that many of us thought -worried-

might never come! The end of the reign of Joy Cooper's Rubber Stamp Crew! :-)















The Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino sign on the south side of Hibiscus Street, across from where the proposed project is situated.

 Even from a cursory look at the photos you can see how completely incompatible two 40-story buildings on that corner would be, and the disastrous effect it would have in a city where Hallandale Beach Blvd. is the ONLY East-West street that runs throughout the city, connecting the beach to I-95.
On a very intensive street that already receives THE lowest possible rating from FDOT.

Here's the Traffic study for the Chateau Square project 

It was NOT available to the public before or during the July 31 HB P&Z Advisory Board meeting, which means the public could NOT ask pointed questions about its finding to the developer, their attorney or traffic consultant during the meeting

 But now, whenever the meeting is finally held, you will have the numbers to use as you wish.
Based on what I heard at the meeting from the traffic consultant, the traffic numbers 
are very troubling and negative for HB residents and businesses who are looking at 
a much worse traffic/gridlock situation than even now, if the city allows something 
to be built as planned in the busiest place in the city -and at twice the current height 
limit.

And to quote myself, "the folks over at Gulfstream Park next door don't like it, either!"

Unless someone on the Hallandale Beach City Commission does something quite unexpected, and actually pushes back against this plan and proposes a reasonable compromise, with meaningful traffic remediation, this impractical plan may well become one of the final albeit GIANT nails in the coffin of this city's Quality of Life, and people's 
ability to move around in this city, which is already very difficult at more times of the day than one would think possible for the number of people living/working in the area.

I don't have to remind you that Mayor Cooper likely sees this project as further 
confirmation of her poorly thought-out ideas about development, where buildings 
and the revenue they generate for the city are more important than people or neighborhoods, which she has demonstrated time-after-time since she has been in office, despite the facts on the ground and the mood of the citizenry.
But when has she really ever listened to anyone else and changed her mind?

So, given everything that's happened of late, with the decisive defeats of pro-development Commissioner Bill Julian and Alex Lewy, longstanding members of Mayor Joy Cooper's 
Rubber Stamp Crew, where exactly are her developer friends and their plans for higher 
density projects near the FEC tracks, something that would actually be smart and which I and most other people in the area would support because of the proximity of the future Tri-Rail Coastal train? 
They are MIA, just like last year and the year before that and the year before...

No, unfortunately, it's going to take more than a few positive election results to turn Hallandale Beach around. 
But a good place to start is to kill any thought of making the city's busiest corner the home of two forty-story towers that would literally strangle the ability of residents and visitors alike to navigate their way in and thru the city.

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Monday, November 14, 2016

Controversial Chateau Square project -and its twin 40-story towers at U.S.-1's most-gridlocked intersection- to get first of two votes Wednesday by Hallandale Beach City Commission. Make your voice heard!

All original photos on this page by me, South Beach Hoosier. (c) 2016 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

 This is the latest installment of my regular series of blog posts about what's going on in Hallandale Beach with the Chateau Group LLC's Chateau Square project that would erect TWO 40-story buildings with a large retail and hotel complex to be located at the corner of U.S.-1 and Hallandale Beach Blvd., which could actually make the city's notoriously gridlocked traffic even worse.
On Wednesday night at 6:30 PM, after many months of delays, the Hallandale Beach City Commission will have their first of two votes on the project.
As my blog has shown for nine years now, these are NOT exactly the sort of people you can allow yourself to give the benefit of the doubt, since they have managed so consistently to break nearly every vow and promise they've made about public accountability and public oversight over the past ten-plus years.

Which is to say, that they they are NOT the caliber of people you want deciding whether or not the city should allow TWO 40-story buildings, with a large retail and hotel complex as well- to be located at the SE corner of US-1 and Hallandale Beach Blvd., where so many businesses have come-and-gone and failed over the past 12 years, save The Knife Argentine restaurant, which continues to pack in local consumers and visitors there because they feature great food and customer service -the rarity in HB.

Hard to imagine that something could actually make that area WORSE, but based on what I've seen so far, it looks like this project, if approved, could very well make the city's infamous, gridlocked traffic even worse unless cooler heads and moderation prevail.

 Excerpt from May 26, 2015 South Florida Business Journal article by real estate reporter Brian Bandell
http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2015/05/26/plan-for-1-237-units-at-diplomat-and-chateau.html  

 Chateau Group plans mixed-use project
Argentinian developer Chateau Group filed plans for a mixed-use project at 600 E. Hallandale Beach Blvd. called Chateau Square.
Located on the 8-acre site just east of U.S. 1, the project would have 800 residential units, 280 hotel rooms, 166,352 square feet of commercial/retail space and 164,254 square feet of office space.
The property was acquired by 600 Hallandale LLC, an affiliate of Chateau Group, for $24.5 million in 2007. It currently has a retail building dating back to 1984.
The project was presented to the city in January with the following specifications:
http://chateau-square.com/wp-content/uploads/Chateau-Square_-01.2016_Architecture_201602011515020973-3.pdf

The Hallandale Beach Planning & Zoning Advisory Board meeting was held July 27th at Ingalls Park -because the City Commission Chambers were being rehabbed- and I attended it. For three-and-a-half hours...
Given how things are done in Hallandale Beach and its peculiar history with respect to development, it was hardly surprised that anyone leaving at 10 PM, like me, would be UNABLE to comment publicly on the biggest development issue of the year in this town, at a public meeting that had started at 6:30 PM.



All these months later, just as I said at the time to people in the room, I'm still dumbfounded that City of Hallandale Beach Director of Development Services Kevin Klopp allowed the meeting to start without either a TV camera to record the meeting if they could not broadcast it from that location, as they have done previously at other HB P&Z meetings I've attended held outside the HB City Hall Chambers, or, at least having the good sense to publicly explain why he and the city failed to do that, since they could have at least recorded the meeting for play back later on COMCAST for residents to watch or on the city's website for any interested party.

It seems to me that just because it's July doesn't mean the normal rules don't apply 
to transparency and public accountability.

Then on August 15, 2016 the South Florida Business Journal's real estate reporter Brian Bandell wrote the following about the project
http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2016/08/15/commission-to-consider-10-major-development.html

 The 8.8-acre site at 600 East Hallandale Beach Blvd. could be approved for 726 high-rise units in two towers, 36 live/work units, 152,792 square feet of office space, 309,000 square feet of gross commercial/retail space and a 280-room hotel. The developer also was to create two openings onto Hallandale Beach Boulevard and one opening on Federal Highway.
The project was designed by UN Studio with BC Architects as the architect of record. The residential buildings would be 40 stories tall. The current zoning code allows for up to 15 stories in that area of the city.
UPDATE: Chateau Group VP of Development Esteban Koffsmon said the county item was deferred because the city most vote on the project before the county. The Hallandale Beach City Commission will vote on the Chateau Square site plan on Aug. 17 on first reading and, if that passes, on second reading in September. Then the plat approval and site plan could go to the county commission.
The city memo notes that only 137,384 square feet of the commercial space would be leasable. The live-work units would wrap around the parking garages. It would have 1,795 parking spaces, instead of the 3,161 normally required for the project of that size, because of a request for parking waivers.
Two media screens would cover the buildings.
Koffsmon said the residential units would be a mix of condos and apartments.
Chateau Group affiliate 600 Hallandale LLC acquired the site for $24.5 million in 2007.





















































The Gulfstream Park Race Track & Casino sign on the south side of Hibiscus Street, across from where the proposed project is situated.




UNStudio in The Netherlands and BC Architects are listed as architects of record

Even from a cursory look at the photos you can see how completely incompatible two 40-story buildings on that corner would be, and the disastrous effect it would have in a city where Hallandale Beach Blvd. is the ONLY East-West street that runs throughout the city, connecting the beach to I-95.
On a very intensive street that already receives THE lowest possible rating from FDOT.




Here's the Traffic study for the Chateau Square project 

It was NOT available to the public before or during the July 31 HB P&Z meeting. 

People who wanted to appear at the P&Z meeting in July or the first planned-then-postponed HB City Commission meeting on Chateau Square on August 17th, could have only relied on partially-submitted documents, but without being able to see video, would have no access to the answers given to questions posed to the developer, his attorney and the traffic consultant by the Board during the meeting

Based on what I heard at the meeting from the traffic consultant, the traffic numbers 
are very troubling and negative for HB residents and businesses who are looking at 
a much worse traffic/gridlock situation than even now, if the city allows something 
to be built as planned in the busiest place in the city -and at twice the current height 
limit.

And to quote myself, "the folks over at Gulfstream Park next door don't like it, either!"

Unless someone on the Hallandale Beach City Commission does something quite unexpected, and actually pushes back against this plan and proposes a reasonable compromise, with meaningful traffic remediation, this impractical plan may well become one of the final albeit GIANT nails in the coffin of this city's Quality of Life, and people's 
ability to move around in this city, which is already very difficult at more times of the day than one would think possible for the number of people living/working in the area.

I don't have to remind you that Mayor Cooper likely sees this project as further 
confirmation of her poorly thought-out ideas about development, where buildings 
and the revenue they generate for the city are more important than people or neighborhoods, which she has demonstrated time-after-time since she has been in office, despite the facts on the ground and the mood of the citizenry.
But when has she really ever listened to anyone else and changed her mind?

So, given everything that's happened of late, with the decisive defeats of pro-development Commissioner Bill Julian and Alex Lewy, longstanding members of Mayor Joy Cooper's Rubber Stamp Crew, where exactly are her developer friends and their plans for higher
density projects near the FEC tracks, something that would actually be smart and which I and most other people in the area would support because of the proximity of the future Tri-Rail Coastal train? 
They are MIA, just like last year and the year before that and the year before...

No, unfortunately, it's going to take more than a few positive election results to turn Hallandale Beach around. But a good place to start is to kill any thought of making the city's busiest corner the home of two forty-story towers that strangles the ability of residents and visitors to navigate their way in and thru the city.
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Friday, August 19, 2016

Controversial and completely-incompatible Chateau Square project in Hallandale Beach deferred until Wed. Sept. 7th; some recent dealings with the Hollywood Police only add to the negative reputation they have in much of the nearby community

I'm re-printing my email of yesterday to Real Estate reporter Brian Bandell of the South Florida Business Journal because it offers me a chance to share with you all some very useful news that I've wanted to share all week, but had put off because I had necessarily planned on doing a number of posts this week on the controversial Chateau Square project, and how I and many other careful observers of this part of Broward County believe it would NEGATIVELY affect the residential and business community of our area if allowed to be constructed exactly as developer Chateau Group wants done.

That is to say, the developer wants this city of under 45,000 people to allow him to construct two forty-story towers on top of a number of floors of retail in a part of Hallandale Beach where the nearest large building within a quarter-mile in any direction is no more than 6-7 stories.
In short, to me, this particular project looks more like something that would be more acceptable or appropriate in the business area of Chevy Chase, Maryland, in suburban Washington, D.C., where similar sized buildings are allowed in their high-density transit-oriented area near various Metro train stations, than it would in small Hallandale Beach, Florida, where the current zoning cap for this particular location is twenty stories. 

Yes, the developer, Chateau Group wants to erect not one but TWO buildings that are TWICE the current height limit under the city's current zoning rules.
And that on top of a few floors of retail
At what is already the busiest intersection in the entire city!

Where the traffic gridlock in this traffic-centric city already has a longstanding home.
Really. 

All photos appearing on this page are by me, South Beach Hoosier, August 2016.
(c) 2016 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

Developer Chateau Group has offered this artist rendering to the city, which has a point-of-view looking SE at the SE corner of US-1/Federal Highway to the right and Hallandale Beach Blvd. to the left. 
Did you notice that the rendering actually shows very few cars on the two roads that actually carry the vast majority of the area's traffic? Accident or intentional? 

It's hard to say, but you'd be surprised at the large number of Hallandale Beach residents and business owners who mention this fact after they are first presented with a copy of this rendering and asked what their initial thoughts are.
They mention it because they actually live and work here and know the reality of what the city's existing terrible traffic gridlock -even in August, sans snowbirds!- can do to your mood and spirit when you want or need to go somewhere.
It's omnipresent.

Holland & Knight's Debbie Orshefsky is clearly a very smart and capable attorney, as I know from personal experience over the years, but no matter how hard she tries to spin the facts about the traffic to her client's benefit, or tries to mis-characterize the everyday reality of life here, there's no way the centrality of daily traffic upon everyone's life in this city can be minimized or ignored by the five members of the Hallandale Beach City Commission when they vote on this important matter in the coming weeks.
And two of the five Commissioners are running for re-election in November: Bill Julian and Michelle Lazarow.



Above, the southern border of this project would be US-1/Federal highway and Hibiscus Drive, the latter of which is a one block road that ends prematurely because within the past ten years the Hallandale Beach City Commission foolishly allowed Gulfstream Park Race Track and Casino to build their employee dorms right where the road could have been extended to 14th Avenue, behind the exiting Publix super market, and serve as a local traffic only road -with No Trucks- for people on Us-1/Federal Highway heading east towards Golden Islands. 

 Instead of showing some foresight and long-range vision, since the road extension has been discussed for decades by City Hall because of the growing traffic gridlock problem, the HB City Commission, including two members of the current City Commission -Mayor Joy Cooper and Comm. Bill Julian- voted to approve the three dorms in their current site, instead of requiring Gulfstream to locate them elsewhere on its massive property, which for those of you who don't know the area, is located across the street from... Hallandale Beach City Hall.

 What's directly south of the proposed Chateau Square project? Gulfstream Park Race Track and Casino and the Village at Gulfstream Park retail complex.

 Looking west on Hibiscus Drive towards US-1/Federal Highway.

Did you know that yet another large retail and office complex is planned for directly across the street (US-1) from this proposed development in the site of what was formerly the Acquo 124 restaurant?

Not many people do judging by the startled looks I've received the past few weeks from usually observant people hereabouts when I've told them that something called Peninsula 124 is trying to get built there.

Here's the artist rendering of the proposed Peninsula 124 building, which is on a large sign posted outside the now vacant restaurant. 

But with the news I heard Wednesday night at Hallandale Beach City Hall that voting on Chateau Square had been postponed until September 7th, it gives me some time to get something else off my chest.

 So below is my email to Brian Bandell, though I did not have the photo of the Hollywood Police squad car in the email. 
----
Just saw your tweet to me.

Tried to call you last night from outside of HB City Hall after the decision was made to defer the agenda item, apparently, per the developer, but the cell phone that had your phone number was the same Samsung phone that was stolen recently in Hollywood, along with my dependable SONY Bloggie camera, not the cell phone I'm using now. :-(

By the way... Police presence on Hollywood beach is getting very problematic and disconcerting.

An award-winning chef and restaurant owner from New Jersey whom I met a few weeks ago and have since become friends with -who's considering opening a location in the SE Broward area- actually had his wallet and cell phone stolen on Hollywood Beach this past Sunday afternoon, even though he was only a few feet out into the water when it happened.

When a Hollywood Policeman FINALLY showed up, he was very matter-of-fact about the theft, and despite the fact that my friend could give a very thorough description of the person who stole it, the Hollywood cop on the scene was very disinterested in getting any details, seemingly more interested in heading on to whatever was the next call that came his way.

The wallet had his NJ drivers license, credit cards and ATM cards, CASH, and most heartbreaking, some photos of his young daughter that were one-of-a-kind, and could not be replaced. 
My friend was positively distraught about that, and understandably so.

The cop even said something along the lines of, "What do you want? There are only two police cars on all of Hollywood Beach, so what do you want me to do?"
#dismissive

In the end, my friend was more upset by the cop's attitude than he was by the robbery, esp. when the cop told him that yes, he was going to have to walk a few miles to where he has been staying, since he couldn't do anything to be of help.
My friend, obviously, being in no position to pay for a cab or use Uber because of the robbery/theft.
By the time I saw him when he got back, he was boiling mad and distraught.

Once he was a bit more calm, I shared some fact-filled stories and anecdotes with him about the recent history of the Hollywood Police and how their current not-so-favorable reputation got the way it is today.
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