By Noreen Marcus, FloridaBulldog.org
Powerhouse developer Related Group and its City of Hollywood partner are gaining momentum to build a private condo tower on a public beach, but opponents still aren’t caving.
Determined anti-highrise residents and zoning and environmental critics left Related stalled with a 2022 deal but no final approval for recently renamed Portofino Hollywood, known around City Hall as the 1301 Project. Related’s attorney says the company intends to break ground for the $375 million, 27-story-tower development this year. Once occupied, fat rental payments and other sweeteners are earmarked for the city, the landlord holding a 99-year lease.
So last week the Hollywood city commission, led by Mayor Josh Levy, pulled off a strategic coup. Commissioners voted 5-2 to incorporate a developer-friendly state law called Live Local into the city’s deal with Related.
The vote means Hollywood is giving up control of 210-unit Portofino; in exchange, it will get 84 apartments intended for rental to teachers, nurses, police officers and other workers, according to Commissioner Caryl Shuham. The remaining 126 condos will be sold at market rates for luxury residences, with prices starting at $4 million.
On Tuesday, at a Broward County Commission meeting scheduled to start at 10 a.m., lawyers for the city and Related are expected to tell the county: Game over. The lawyers likely will insist that Broward just lost its power to dictate any aspect of the 1301 Project and site at 1301 S. Ocean Dr., home of a community center and Harry Berry Park.
Longtime Hollywood activist Steve Welsch will say the game shouldn’t be over because Broward can and should join Hillsborough County’s legal challenge to the Live Local law, he told Florida Bulldog. The lawsuit is pending in Tallahassee state court.
“This is our parks, our open spaces, all of our community centers – everything that’s owned by us, the citizens, is now open to developers like Related,” Welsch said.
“If the county would join the Hillsborough lawsuit right now, that would put everything on hold. If Hillsborough wins the lawsuit, this deal’s gone,” he said. Broward could join the lawsuit by filing a friend-of-the-court brief.
“If Broward County doesn’t recognize this, then they’re failing their constituencies, including Hollywood where residents were thrown under the bus by their elected officials,” Welsch said. “Someone has to have a backbone on that commission.”
Much more is at stake than a single megabucks project that one developer and a city have hustled to complete for four years, Welsch suggested.
“Every developer that’s out there is watching and saying, ‘Wow, we see how they do this.’ Related is providing the template for every developer to come into every city in the state of Florida and take away parks and open spaces,” he said.
CITY: PORTOFINO DETAILS TBD
Yet as of Friday Broward County Commissioner Beam Furr, who’s supported the beach highrise opponents, wouldn’t say he plans to push back against Hollywood’s latest tactic to launch the 1301 Project, originally to be called the Hollywood Arts Residences.
“Live Local Act does preempt local government and gives the city and the developer the alternative path forward,”he wrote in an answer to emailed questions from Florida Bulldog.
Related Group’s press contact did not respond to emailed questions about potential revisions to Portofino Hollywood’s design and site plans.
During a four-hour city commission meeting Wednesday, officials provided few specifics about how condo owners and workforce renters will be accommodated – or anything besides the riches the city will reap and the problems this jackpot will solve in lieu of a tax increase.
City staff put on a dazzling number-heavy show with visual aids. Special projects administrator David Keller said Portofino’s first year should net the city $62.5 million from sales of the market-rate units and millions more from other income streams. He said over the life of the 99-year lease the city can expect to receive $2.72 billion.
“It’s eye-opening to see all the financial benefits,” Mayor Levy said. Florida Bulldog previously reported that during Levy’s 2024 re-election campaign a political action committee backing him received $100,000 in contributions from corporations tied to the Related Group.
The 28 residents who spoke out against the new deal had questions about design revisions, prospects for the onsite community center the city would have to pay $20 million to replace – always a flashpoint – and who will manage the rentals long term.
To each one Levy responded that the city, acting as landlord, will negotiate the details later with tenant Related Group. He described the resolution the city passed 5-to-2 as a mere “expression of intent,” not the finalized agreement that will require another city commission review and vote.
‘AN INSULT TO TEACHERS’
Commissioner Shuham, a construction lawyer who’s opposed the 1301 Project since its inception six years ago, challenged city staff’s glowing financial projections. The $2.72 billion life-of-lease bonanza has grown by $1 billion since December, she said.
“I don’t feel this commission has accurate or sufficient information to decide whether this should be a Live Local project,” Shuham said, and appealed to her colleagues to slow down before agreeing to let the project proceed.
They ignored her.
Shuham and others argued that Live Local at Portofino won’t attract the workforce renters the law is supposed to help because they can’t afford to live there.
“It’s an insult to teachers to call this affordable,” said Cat Uden, a former teacher who’s running for a city commission seat this year. She said a studio apartment would rent for $2,600 a month under the federal income formula for subsidized housing in Broward – more than the mortgage for her five-bedroom house, she told Florida Bulldog after the meeting.
What drew the most negative reaction during the meeting was the idea that Related might install separate entrances to Portofino for renters and owners. This design feature, called “poor doors” when it’s used in New York and London, is reviled as a form of income-based segregation.
“I won’t approve anything that has separate entrances,” Commissioner Idelma Quintana said.
Shuham called for “no segregation” at Portofino. She asked Related’s lawyer Keith Poliakoff to commit to a single entrance.
“I’m not agreeing to that,” he said.
Levy chimed in, saying, “Let’s not get over ourselves too much.”
In the end, only Shuham and Quintana voted against the resolution.
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