New parking and retail building proposed next to Mid-Beach hotel redevelopment

UPDATED April 28, 4 p.m.: The new owners of the Continental on Collins condo-hotel in Miami Beach want to build a four-story addition that will be used for parking and retail.

An application submitted by Sukkah Miami Beach Acquisitions LLC to the city’s planning board is requesting permission to incorporate a mechanical car lift for the proposed garage. Sukkah is also separately seeking approval from the Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board for a partial demolition of the Continental in order to connect the existing building to the new structure.

Sukkah representatives made the case for the garage elevator during a Miami Beach Planning Board meeting on Tuesday, but board members delayed a vote pending further traffic studies and a decision by the historic preservation board, which will consider the project in early June.

“In order to minimize the impact and not make a larger structure, we are [incorporating] a mechanical car elevator on the west side of the proposed garage,” said Sukkah attorney Monica Entin.

Sukkah is a holding company owned by Boca Raton-based investment firms Pebb Capital and Duncan Hillsley Capital and Miami Lakes-based LeaseFlorida, which previously revealed plans to convert the old condo-hotel into a 90-key Hampton Inn.

The companies took control of the building last October when they bought out the owners of the Continental’s 102 rooms and 18 commercial units in a deal totaling roughly $23.36 million.

Plans by project design firm Charles H. Benson & Associate Architects show the new building incorporates some of the Postwar Modern designs of the Continental. The most prominent element is a decorative screen that wraps around part of the new structure, which will house retail on the first and second levels. Parking for 74 cars will be placed in the third and fourth levels, as well as the rooftop. The Continental and the new building would be connected at the lobby level.