Heading out of town? An 11-story parking garage planned for site near Port Everglades

A massive, 11-story parking garage with about 645 spaces is in the works for Hollywood near Port Everglades to serve travelers taking cruises and flights.

The Hollywood Planning and Development Board last week approved the site plan for the parking garage on land that is now being used as a surface parking lot. The property belongs to DS Realty, LLC, an entity led by Scott Daiagi. According to the application filed with the city’s planning department, the “value of improvements” will be $2.5 million.     

Wilson Atkinson, attorney for the developer with the firm of Tripp Scott, told The Real Deal that he expects the property owner to apply for a building permit by year-end. Although he said that he doesn’t know when construction will begin, once it does begin, the garage should be finished within 12 months, he said.   

The development will have 1,400 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor. The kind of occupant has yet to be determined, Atkinson told TRD. The garage itself, which will have only valet parking, is designed to serve cruise ship and airport passengers who need long-term parking. It will have electrical charging stations for electric cars.   

The garage, which will be on the east side of Federal Highway, will have a unique design, with so-called “living walls” on the exterior of the building. These walls will either have slots built into them to accommodate plants, or greenery will cover the outside of the walls. The plants, which will be drought-resistant, will be “self-irrigated,” Atkinson told TRD, which means that the irrigation system will work automatically on a 24/7 year-round basis.   

The garage will not have any windows on its east side, which faces Port Everglades, because of concerns by port security that windows could provide a perch for snipers. For the same reason, Atkinson told the board, the Crowne Plaza Fort Lauderdale Hotel on the northwest corner of State Road 84 and Federal Highway, which also overlooks the port, but which is on the west side of Federal Highway, does not have any windows.