Florida law gives Miami developers dream scenario: Raze old houses, build modern homes
Prominent South Florida residential developer Todd Michael Glaser is going on a shopping spree for up to 40 Miami Beach houses, to demolish them and sell the vacant lots to wealthy people, after a new state law gives single-family homeowners leverage to demolish historic homes.
“This is going to change the way Miami Beach is going to look,” Glaser told the Miami Herald.
Five other developers agreed the law grants new opportunities for development in places with the strictest historic preservation policies in South Florida, including Miami Beach, Coral Gables and Palm Beach.
The Florida legislature unanimously approved — without public debate — a demolition law prohibiting local authorities from stopping the demolition of houses without historic designation that sit at or below base flood elevation. Signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May, the law went into effect in July.
Owners now have much more power since the state did away with a tedious municipal process. Any owner can request a demolition permit and bulldoze a house without going to a single municipal meeting. It’s a dream scenario for builders.
“This shouldn’t be seen as bad news for anybody,” said Frank McKinney, a Palm Beach speculative real-estate developer. “Eventually with that house being below base flood, it will be flooded at some point. Let someone come in, demolish and do it right. Fifty years from now, you can designate those houses historic.”
Speculative developers are now on the hunt for older properties. Unlike builders who construct made-to-order houses for existing clients, spec builders buy existing houses, demolish and build new ones, or sell lots as Glaser said he intended.
The market is so hot for new construction, said James Curnin, a spec home builder and CEO and founder of Clara Homes, that his last three houses all sold while under construction. He builds in both Miami Beach and Coral Gables.
“It makes the negotiations easier, it makes the numbers better,” Curnin said. “I’m always looking. If a deal comes up, I’ll jump in and do it.”
The new Florida home preservation law followed the Herald’s reporting of a rising number of home demolition applications for single-family homes in Miami Beach. Beach officials had a rigorous demolition process for houses built before 1942 in which owners had to first gain approval from the Historic Preservation Board and Design Review Board before receiving a permit to bulldoze. At times, applications failed to receive approval since the preservation board insisted a house merited historic designation and either recommended that the city’s commission give designation or prolong the process so much so that owners gave up, either remaining with the house as it stood or listing it.
That’s what happened at 93 Palm Ave. in Miami Beach, Al Capone’s last residence. Glaser purchased the house in August 2021 alongside a business partner to replace it with a new house. Within a month, he sold the house due to an uproar from preservationists. Today, the gangster’s 100-year-old house is owned by its next-door neighbors, the Claramonte family, who have yet to decide whether to preserve, demolish or sell.
Expect to see more vacant lots in Miami Beach, Glaser said. Over the next eight months, he plans to buy around 40 houses to raze them and sell the lots. Neighborhoods North Beach and Mid Beach have plenty of older residences.
“Once it’s a vacant piece of land,” Glaser said, “you’re selling a dream.”
Historic preservationists face a steep challenge ahead, especially those who, McKinney called the purists, people who “have their head in the sand and gets their ass kicked.”
But preservationists do have allies in the development community.
“If we can preserve a house, I would love that,” said Alirio Torrealba, CEO of MG Developer in Coral Gables. “For many, it’s much easier to demolish, but for us we would like to keep a balance between old and new buildings.”
Having built several homes in Coral Gables with another in the pipeline, Torrealba said he has remodeled older houses in the past and listed them for sale. Now, he said, he’ll take an extra step to designate houses or structures historic before selling.
This story was originally published July 20, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
