Miami Herald Logo

Despite residents’ protest, commissioners approve extended stay hotel | Miami Herald

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
    • Site Information
    • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • Herald Store
    • RSS Feeds
    • Special Sections
    • Advertise
    • Advertise with Us
    • Media Kit
    • Mobile
    • Mobile Apps & eReaders
    • Newsletters
    • Social
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Google+
    • Instagram
    • YouTube

    • Sections
    • News
    • South Florida
    • Miami-Dade
    • Broward
    • Florida Keys
    • Florida
    • Politics
    • Weird News
    • Weather
    • National & World
    • Colombia
    • National
    • World
    • Americas
    • Cuba
    • Guantánamo
    • Haiti
    • Venezuela
    • Local Issues
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health Care
    • In Depth
    • Issues & Ideas
    • Traffic
    • Sections
    • Sports
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Pro & College
    • Miami Dolphins
    • Miami Heat
    • Miami Marlins
    • Florida Panthers
    • College Sports
    • University of Miami
    • Florida International
    • University of Florida
    • Florida State University
    • More Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Auto Racing
    • Fighting
    • Golf
    • Horse Racing
    • Outdoors
    • Soccer
    • Tennis
    • Youth Sports
    • Other Sports
    • Politics
    • Elections
    • The Florida Influencer Series
    • Sections
    • Business
    • Business Monday
    • Banking
    • International Business
    • National Business
    • Personal Finance
    • Real Estate News
    • Small Business
    • Technology
    • Tourism & Cruises
    • Workplace
    • Business Plan Challenge
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Cindy Krischer Goodman
    • The Starting Gate
    • Work/Life Balancing Act
    • Movers
    • Sections
    • Living
    • Advice
    • Fashion
    • Food & Drink
    • Health & Fitness
    • Home & Garden
    • Pets
    • Recipes
    • Travel
    • Wine
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Dave Barry
    • Ana Veciana-Suarez
    • Flashback Miami
    • More Living
    • LGBTQ South Florida
    • Palette Magazine
    • Indulge Magazine
    • South Florida Album
    • Broward Album
    • Sections
    • Entertainment
    • Books
    • Comics
    • Games & Puzzles
    • Horoscopes
    • Movies
    • Music & Nightlife
    • People
    • Performing Arts
    • Restaurants
    • TV
    • Visual Arts
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Jose Lambiet
    • Lesley Abravanel
    • More Entertainment
    • Events Calendar
    • Miami.com
    • Contests & Promotions
    • Sections
    • All Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Op-Ed
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Jim Morin
    • Letters to the Editor
    • From Our Inbox
    • Speak Up
    • Submit a Letter
    • Meet the Editorial Board
    • Influencers Opinion
    • Blogs & Columnists
    • Blog Directory
    • Columnist Directory
    • Andres Oppenheimer
    • Carl Hiaasen
    • Leonard Pitts Jr.
    • Fabiola Santiago
    • Obituaries
    • Obituaries in the News
    • Place an Obituary

    • Place an ad
    • All Classifieds
    • Announcements
    • Apartments
    • Auctions/Sales
    • Automotive
    • Commercial Real Estate
    • Employment
    • Garage Sales
    • Legals
    • Merchandise
    • Obituaries
    • Pets
    • Public Notices
    • Real Estate
    • Services
  • Public Notices
  • Cars
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Real Estate
  • Mobile & Apps

  • el Nuevo Herald
  • Miami.com
  • Indulge

Aventura - Sunny Isles

Despite residents’ protest, commissioners approve extended stay hotel

BY ALLISON HORTON

Special to the Miami Herald

    ORDER REPRINT →

November 24, 2014 08:05 PM

Residents of Sunny Isles Beach fed up with congestion on Collins Avenue spoke against a proposed 18-story extended stay hotel on the west side of the street last Thursday night. But commissioners narrowly approved the project anyway.

Developer Robert Finvarb plans to build the Residence Inn by Marriott at 17700 Collins Avenue. The extended stay hotel will consist of 194 rooms with kitchens, rooftop pools, two meeting rooms and a restaurant. Rates are expected to be $175-$375 per night.

“It is not really a hotel room, but a living unit,” said Clifford Schulman, an attorney for the hotel. “It is one of the first projects to improve the west side of the Collins Avenue.”

Residents expressed their concern that this project would become the starting point for high rise developments on the west side of Collins, which now consists mainly of strip malls, restaurants and retail stores. The east side of the street mainly consists of high rise developments that have led to congestion on Collins Avenue, residents said.

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

“Tonight, I draw the line,” said resident Gloria Taf, whose comments were met with thunderous applause from the audience. “It is already congested so you can barely get through. Where is the quality of life we are entitled to?”

Vehicles would be able to use Atlantic Avenue, which would help to relieve traffic, said architect Kobi Karp, who designed the hotel. The hotel would be “a very low generator of traffic” with 90 percent of traffic entering on Collins Avenue and exiting onto Atlantic, said the project officials. A traffic study revealed there would be double the traffic if an 110,000 square feet office building was placed there, project official said.

Resident Tony Schneider, who lives across the street from the proposed hotel, found hard that to believe.

“That traffic study is completely bogus,” Schneider said. “Cars that don’t know the area would be driving on Collins. It would be horrible.”

Schneider also called out commissioners to keep their campaign promises from the recent election.

“Many of you who ran said you wouldn’t touch the west side of Collins,” Schneider said.

Resident Howard Gordon also called for newly re-elected commissioners to remember their promises or “otherwise we are going to be in a concrete canyon.”

Mayor elect and current Commissioner Bud Scholl said during his campaign he stated he would not approve variances to projects, which the proposed extended stay hotel does not have.

“We don’t have a hotel like this,” Scholl said. “When we have family members come to town they have to stay at the Marriott in Aventura.”

Commissioner Jennifer Levin also voiced support for the project, adding the proposed narrow hotel building would cast a “small footprint” on the city.

“We need a hotel like this in Sunny Isles Beach,” Levin said. “Most of the west side [of Collins] is strip malls. It will provide a service for visiting family members to have somewhere to stay.”

Scholl also added that there is a tradeoff between residents and owners’ property rights, which could lead to lawsuits against the city if not taken into account.

“If we don’t like the rules, we should change the rules,” Scholl said. “My particular reality would be no but we have a responsibility to protect the city as a fiduciary. We could be sued in short order.”

Mayor Norman Edelcup, who presided over his last meeting as mayor, agreed that the city must protect itself against litigation.

“The city could be sued,” said Edelcup. “We can’t let emotions rule. In order for the city to be successful, the city has to be adaptive to growth.”

Commissioner Jeanette Gatto voted against the project and was concerned about how residents would be affected.

“It never occurred to us the west side [of Collins] would be up for grabs,” Gatto said. “I am nervous about the traffic impact and noise. The hotel would bring a different dynamic.”

Vice Mayor Isaac Aelion also voiced his disapproval of how traffic will be affected and stated that the impact of this decision will be felt 2-3 years down the road. “It will impact society,” Aelion said. “Enough is enough.”

The commission passed the proposed hotel projects 3-2 with the condition the hotel would seek a special events license and police service for events.

In other city news:

▪ A proposed 26-story condo and hotel development at 16800 Collins Avenue was deferred to the next commission meeting on Dec. 18 after commissioners voiced their initial disapproval of requested variances for the project.

▪ Lewis Thaler, who ran for mayor of Sunny Isles Beach in the recent election, said he has filed a lawsuit calling for a new election since neither Scholl nor he got more than 50 percent of vote, which he says is required by the city.

  Comments  

Videos

Skyler the 18-year-old rat terrier goes missing

Shoppers flee Aventura Mall after unconfirmed reports of shooting

View More Video

Trending Stories

Man arrested after climbing crane near FIU to ask Trump for mercy for Cuban exile bomber

February 18, 2019 08:44 AM

One dead in shooting near South Beach’s Ocean Drive

February 17, 2019 06:47 AM

A Florida 6th-grader called the Pledge of Allegiance ‘racist.’ Then he got arrested.

February 18, 2019 08:59 AM

Haitian police arrest five Americans who claimed they were on a ‘government mission’

February 18, 2019 06:37 PM

Did the rock star unzip it on stage in Miami? Fifty years later, let’s take a look

February 17, 2019 09:41 AM

Read Next

A mayoral showdown in an enclave of millionaires: The Gentrifier vs. the Gentrified
Video media Created with Sketch.

Aventura - Sunny Isles

A mayoral showdown in an enclave of millionaires: The Gentrifier vs. the Gentrified

By Sarah Blaskey

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 13, 2019 06:30 AM

Incumbent Mayor Glenn Singer will face his first challenger, Barbara Shaheen, in the Golden Beach municipal elections for town council. Under Singer’s administration, the town has undergone gentrification.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE AVENTURA - SUNNY ISLES

Driver dead, 1 injured after high-speed crash launches car into traffic light

Aventura - Sunny Isles

Driver dead, 1 injured after high-speed crash launches car into traffic light

February 09, 2019 06:14 PM
Swimming advisories lifted for beaches affected by massive wastewater dump

Environment

Swimming advisories lifted for beaches affected by massive wastewater dump

February 07, 2019 04:01 PM
Doctor who wrote 688 prescriptions a month convicted on federal drug charges

Aventura - Sunny Isles

Doctor who wrote 688 prescriptions a month convicted on federal drug charges

February 06, 2019 07:59 AM
Health alert: Don’t swim or fish where 720,000 gallons of sewage  were dumped into waters

Environment

Health alert: Don’t swim or fish where 720,000 gallons of sewage were dumped into waters

February 04, 2019 07:00 AM
Bank robbery suspect dubbed ‘The Traveling Bandit’ arrested. He’ll face charges in Miami.

Crime

Bank robbery suspect dubbed ‘The Traveling Bandit’ arrested. He’ll face charges in Miami.

January 24, 2019 06:03 PM
A hit-and-run on U.S. 1 ended in a critical injury. Aventura cops have photos of the car

Aventura - Sunny Isles

A hit-and-run on U.S. 1 ended in a critical injury. Aventura cops have photos of the car

January 24, 2019 11:42 AM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

Miami Herald App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Public Insight Network
  • Reader Panel
Advertising
  • Place a Classified
  • Media Kit
  • Commercial Printing
  • Public Notices
Copyright
Commenting Policy
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story