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Court rejects Dezer, Related 10-story Hillsboro Beach condo project
Town council had approved a building height variance requested by Dezer Development and the Related Group
A court struck down a building height variance for Dezer Development and the Related Group’s proposed 10-story condo project in Hillsboro Beach.
The Fort Lauderdale court’s move quashed a development order that Hillsboro Beach had issued for the site at 1174-1185 Hillsboro Mile, after the town council approved the height variance.
“It is clear that the essential requirements of the law were not followed in the granting of the subject variance,” Judges John Bowman, Ernest Kollra and Mariya Weekes of the 17th Judicial Circuit Court in Fort Lauderdale wrote in their ruling last week.
The impact on the development isn’t immediately clear. “It is our policy to refrain from commenting on ongoing litigation,” a spokesperson for Related Group said in a statement. “We wish to emphasize that the court’s opinion is not final. Consequently, we have no comment at this time.”
Sunny Isles Beach-based Dezer Development, led by Gil Dezer, acquired the two-parcel development site on the Hillsboro Mile section of State Road A1A out of bankruptcy for $28.5 million in 2016. It then sold the assemblage to a joint venture with Coconut Grove-based Related, led by Jorge Pérez and Jon Paul Pérez, for $30 million in late 2020.
The 11.8-acre development site on both sides of Hillsboro Mile touches the Intracoastal Waterway on the west and the Atlantic Ocean on its east. The site is in an area where the town limits building height to 35 feet — or three stories. After winning the height variance in January of last year, Related and Dezer planned to build a 10-story, 130-foot-tall condo building on the east parcel, and a three-story condo building on the west parcel.
Earlier this month, Dezer and Related started marketing the 92-unit boutique condo development as Rosewood Residences Hillsboro Beach in a branding deal with Rosewood Hotels and Resorts.
But three residents of Hillsboro Beach who live within 500 feet of the development filed a complaint challenging the legality of the building height variance that the developers requested for the east parcel.
The New Pelican first reported the ruling.
Related and Dezer Development argued that the variance was justified because a bushy 2.8-acre dune is part of the 6.4-acre east parcel and constitutes a hardship. Broward County has designated the dune as a conservation area since 1992.
But “the record is devoid of any indication by the applicant [Related Group] that, without the variance, no reasonable use could be made of the property,” the court said in its ruling. “In fact, an appraisal prepared by a real estate advisory and valuation service for Hillsboro shows that a low-rise structure conforming to the requirements of Hillsboro’s code is entirely possible and profitable.”