The Sunny Isles Beach City Commission voted in favor of Related Group, Dezer Development and BH Group’s proposed condo tower, despite mounting concerns from neighboring residents and disagreements on the commission.
Related, Dezer and BH filed plans for a 62-story, 145-unit condo tower on the site of the former Miami Beach Club at 19051 Collins Avenue months after they completed a $131.8 million buyout of the 108-unit complex.
The 2-acre site is immediately north of Residences by Armani/Casa, a luxury condo tower that Related and Dezer co-developed.
As a result of residents’ concerns about safety and the effect on structural integrity of surrounding buildings, the developers agreed to monitor vibrations and subsidence during construction and for one year after.
The city agreed to sell development rights and assign them to the site for more than $26 million, allowing for a larger project. The transfer of development rights (TDRs) would give the developers an additional 121,000 square feet of floor area ratio, but they plan to build fewer units than they can by right.
After 10 p.m. on Thursday, commissioners Alex Lama, Fabiola Stuyvesant and Jennifer Viscarra and Mayor Larisa Svechin voted in favor, and commissioner Jerry Joseph was the sole no vote. They granted site plan approval and a resolution tied to the TDRs.
“After this leaves tonight, there is nothing that the city can do to protect the residents,” Joseph said in response to dialogue about the developers continuing to work with residents on an agreement that would ease their concerns.
Stuyvesant suggested Mayor Svechin’s vote was compromised because the developers made “a massive investment” helping get her elected, Stuyvesant said.
Svechin said the city is bound by its own code. “This isn’t about what we personally want,” she said.
One neighboring resident, Dr. Oliver Drabkin, made the point that none of the commissioners live on the east side of Collins Avenue, where the project is planned: “It’s almost like somebody in Oklahoma giving zoning in downtown Manhattan.” Drabkin said he felt “betrayed” by the commission.
In an ironic turn of events, owners at Armani/Casa hired their own attorney, Alessandra Stivelman, to represent them in their opposition to this project. Stivelman told The Real Deal earlier this week that Thursday’s meeting marked the city commission’s last opportunity to vote on the plans.
Stivelman said that the developers failed to address her clients’ concerns, including emergency access, traffic and fears following the deadly collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside in 2021.
“The developer is giving us a big middle finger,” Stivelman said.
TMB RE Investments LLC is the developer. An ownership chart submitted to Sunny Isles in December 2024 shows that a Delaware entity, BLFO MBC Member LLC, owns 75 percent. That LLC is owned by Bahamian entities tied to a Brazilian family. The remaining 25 percent is owned by the Pérez family’s Related, the Dezer family firm and Isaac and Liat Toledano’s BH.
In their application, the developers stated that the project could cost about $294 million to build, and it has an anticipated completion date of December 2031. The developers are seeking up to five years from approval to obtain a building permit, and up to five years from the issuance of a building permit to complete the tower.
The tower is expected to include a padel court, pool deck, water features and a sculpture garden on the west-facing side of the property, and a lap pool, outdoor spa, cabanas and beach access on the east.
The owners’ complicated buyout of Miami Beach Club dragged on for more than a decade. Miami Beach Club’s condo association and at least one unit owner sued the Related/Dezer entity that developed Residences by Armani/Casa. One lawsuit over construction next door was dismissed in 2022.
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