Miami Beach Shore Club demolition approved

One of the biggest redevelopment projects on Miami Beach is moving forward after the city’s historic preservation board on Tuesday signed off on the partial demolition of the interior of the Shore Club hotel at 1901 Collins Avenue.  

Last year the Board approved a request by New York-based HFZ Capital Group to carry out the “near total demolition” of the adjacent Cromwell hotel. Both structures will be part of a luxury condo-hotel project known as the Fasano Miami Beach.   

The board approved the partial demolition over the objections of an attorney representing a property owner at the Setai Resort and Residences, which sits just across 20th Street from the Shore Club development. An expert testified on behalf of several residents last year that the demolition of the Cromwell could cause its collapse but city officials rejected those concerns. Several Setai residents are now appealing the decision in court. On Tuesday a lawyer representing a client at the Setai said the latest demolition would compromise the structural integrity of the Shore Club building.

A structural engineer representing HFZ Capital Group said on Tuesday that while the Cromwell demolition project was extensive, requiring extensive bracing of exterior walls, the demolition project at the Shore Club will be limited, confined to interior upper floors and a lounge area above the hotel’s architecturally significant lobby area. Attorneys representing HFZ Capital Group said the areas to be demolished were largely used as back office facilities for the hotel.  

A staff report from the Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board raised no concerns about the proposed demolition of the Shore Club but recommended that a proposed wall for the new lobby be straight rather than curved. Members of the board agreed, and also said that columns in the lobby should be featured more prominently and that wood trim planned for the area also not be used. In its approval, the board asked that the historic preservation board’s staff approve what material is used in the lobby restoration.

HFZ Capital Group acquired the Shore Club for $175.3 million in December 2013 and the project has gone before the Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board multiple times since then.

When it is completed the project will have 85 hotel suites, 67 luxury condos, three restaurants and a new pool that will span more than 9,500 square-feet and be 250 feet long. Units will range from 800 square feet to more than 4,000 square feet and will have floor-to-ceiling windows and terraces, including some that will exceed 3,000 square-feet.

The hotel is scheduled to open as a Fasano at the end of 2018. Fasano currently has three hotels under construction and three in operation, including the Miami Beach property. Brazilian architect Issay Weinfeld is designing the project which now moves to the city Planning Board.