‘A 180-degree flip’: Some residents say mayor betrayed them on Intracoastal Mall vote
After North Miami Beach Mayor Anthony DeFillipo cast the decisive vote Tuesday to seal the approval, 4-3, of a massive redevelopment of the Intracoastal Mall, some residents wondered: What changed?
DeFillipo had long been a supporter of the project, voting for it in September and again Oct. 20. But two days after the Oct. 20 vote to approve the $1.5 billion plan, DeFillipo said he had a change of heart. He moved for reconsideration of the vote, citing concerns about the process — one commissioner fell asleep and another logged off before part of the proposal was approved around 2 a.m. — and with aspects of the project itself.
The commission voted unanimously to schedule a new meeting and vote again.
In an Oct. 29 video call with residents of the nearby Eastern Shores community, some of whom oppose the project, DeFillipo repeatedly said he would vote “no” unless significant changes were made, including to address concerns about traffic and building heights.
He was sympathetic to residents who said the plan by the developers, led by Gil Dezer, fails to provide multiple access points into and out of the mall site, as is required in the city’s zoning ordinance. And he echoed those who said 40-story towers in the plan are incompatible with the residential community north of Oleta River State Park.
“I can tell you right now in my position, the way it stands, if this comes back Nov. 10 and there’s no changes, my vote is going to be a no vote,” DeFillipo told Eastern Shores residents, according to footage from the call obtained by the Miami Herald. “The last thing I’m going to do is go back on my word. I’m going to do what’s right on Nov. 10.”
Regarding traffic concerns, the mayor said: “If they are going to build something of this magnitude, they need to provide the adequate traffic solutions. And if not, they are going to have to scale back. My vote, as I stand here today before all of you, will not be there.”
He also weighed in on building heights: “I can see very clearly that the density that’s being put here is not to scale as it reads in the ordinance. And I have my reservations, and I agree with you, and I’m going to be looking for those concessions or those reductions in the conversations ... when this comes back to us with the developer.”
The message seemed clear. “My vote is not going to be what it was before if the conditions remain the same,” DeFillipo said. “And I guarantee that.”
“Tony flipped,” one person who attended the meeting told the Herald that night.
Mayor supports project despite few changes
On Tuesday, the city commission reconvened to vote again. Minor changes had been made since the October meeting, but the key aspects of the plan remained the same. To address traffic, the developers would widen Northeast 35th Avenue, the sole road in and out of Eastern Shores, and add a left-hand turn signal to direct traffic onto 36th Avenue. Multiple towers would still rise 40 stories.
DeFillipo said that, after meeting with city staff, all of his questions were answered and no changes were needed. The plan, he said, meets the requirement to provide multiple access points to the development — which some residents dispute — and he said the towers will be situated toward the south part of the site, farther away from Eastern Shores, satisfying worries about whether they fit into the character of the surrounding neighborhood.
“It was clear to me that this was something that did not merit voting down,” DeFillipo told the Herald Wednesday.
Asked why he had told residents he planned to vote no unless substantial changes were made, DeFillipo suggested he wasn’t previously aware of certain details of the plan before he met with staff recently.
“I did not 100% understand how this was really laid out, and that’s why I brought it back for reconsideration,” he said. “I didn’t make any promise. I promised I would do the right thing based on the facts presented to me, and that’s what I did.”
Some Eastern Shores residents aren’t buying that explanation. Bruce Kusens, who ran against DeFillipo for mayor in the Nov. 3 election, said residents felt “betrayed.”
“He absolutely pandered to all of us. He did a 180-degree flip,” said Kusens, who received about 32% of the votes. Kusens was endorsed by the Miami-Dade Democrats despite saying publicly that he didn’t want to be mayor.
Bruce Lamberto, another Eastern Shores resident and vocal critic of the project, put it more bluntly. DeFillipo, he said, “would be the poster child for a lying politician.”
Lamberto said that, when he spoke to DeFillipo at an early voting site, the mayor said he would fight to add a so-called “Texas U-turn” to the project plans, something residents have long pushed for but that the developers don’t want to include.
“He said, ‘We’re gonna get that U-turn, we’re gonna lower the density,’ ” Lamberto said of his interaction with the mayor. “Nobody flips like that.”
On Tuesday night, two votes to approve the project — one for the master plan and another providing 30 years to complete it — both went 4-3 in favor. DeFillipo and Commissioners McKenzie Fleurimond, Michael Joseph and Paule Villard voted in the majority, while Barbara Kramer, Fortuna Smukler and Phyllis Smith were opposed.
The next step is for the project to be vetted by the Florida Department of Transportation. But it’s likely headed to court first. Jose Smith, a former North Miami Beach city attorney who now represents Kusens, said residents will file an appeal arguing that the commission “failed to follow the city code and applicable legal authorities.”
The mall project, known as Uptown Harbour, would bring more than 3,000 condos and apartments, 575,000 square feet of office and retail space, and a 100-foot-wide canal to the outdoor site at 3861 Northeast 163rd St., on the Sunny Isles Causeway.
Dezer Development bought the Intracoastal Mall in 2013 for $63.5 million. The developer took advantage of changes in North Miami Beach’s zoning ordinance made in 2015 to increase the density of the project.
Politics, elections loom over project
Most of the discussion Tuesday was about the details of the plan, like whether a police substation is needed at the site. But questions about politics and money also loomed large — just as they did in 2018, when the public learned then-mayor George Vallejo had created shell companies to hide payments from Dezer to Vallejo’s wife.
Two commissioners who oppose the project, Smith and Smukler, suggested Dezer may have tried to influence the city’s elections through campaign donations.
It’s not clear if those claims are accurate. Much of the campaign advertising for North Miami Beach candidates was funded by dark-money political committees, which was similarly the case in 2018. A representative for Gil Dezer, the owner and president of Dezer Development, did not respond to an inquiry about whether Dezer has provided any money, directly or indirectly, to any North Miami Beach candidates.
Ron Book, the powerful lobbyist who represents Dezer on the project and also lobbies on behalf of North Miami Beach on other issues, donated to the campaigns of several candidates, including DeFillipo, Fleurimond and Dianne Raulson, according to campaign finance reports.
Raulson ran unsuccessfully for the seat Smith is vacating due to term limits.
On disclosure forms submitted ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, DeFillipo and Fleurimond acknowledged that Book was among the people they had spoken to about the project since the October vote.
DeFillipo, Fleurimond and Joseph each defeated challengers Nov. 3 to maintain their seats.
On Nov. 17, residents will vote in a runoff to replace Smith between Margie Love, a retired teacher, and Daniela Jean, a risk management administrative coordinator for the city of North Miami. Love and Jean took the top two spots in a six-person race but failed to capture the majority of votes needed to win the seat outright.
This story was originally published November 11, 2020 at 5:30 PM.
