Historic designation denied for Miami Beach Rod & Reel Club

Miami Beach city commissioners voted against a historic designation for the Miami Beach Rod & Reel Club yesterday after 16 months of debate over the building’s future. First erected in 1925, the clubhouse at 218 S. Hibiscus Drive, which closed last year, is now deteriorating and it would cost $1.8 million to tear it down and restore to its former aesthetic. Members of the 79-year-old club had argued against the historic designation. “This is America,” said Steve Tunstall, an attorney and one of the club’s 52 members. “It’s our property; we’d like to be left alone.” The club, which owes $1.5 million in debt, put the property on the market last year and has since lost its right to operate there. Declaring the clubhouse a historic property would have meant that the new owner would have to pay to restore it under historic building codes and operate it as a single-family home. [Miami Herald]