Miami Beach voters on
Tuesday failed to approve a ballot measure that would have allowed
Atlanta-based Portman Holdings to lease public land for the construction of a
new convention center hotel.
Because of earlier opposition to the hotel, the ballot measure required 60-percent approval from voters
but it received only 54 percent. Jack Portman, vice chairman of Portman
Holdings, told The Real Deal “how often does anybody get 60%, but we are
grateful to all the people who understood our position.”
The hotel proposal had
wide support from a majority of city commissioners and the Miami Beach Chamber
of Commerce and the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, which said it
was privately financed, and necessary to the success of the convention center, which is undergoing a multi-year $514.4 million renovation.
Hotel backers said a
new hotel would attract big conventions and consumer shows but opponents said
the $400 million, 25-story 800-room hotel would only worsen traffic congestion
on already gridlocked Miami Beach – something hotel backers strongly disputed.
Commissioner Kristen
Rosen-Gonzalez who helped lead opposition to the hotel told TRD “the
other side ran a great campaign,” but she said Miami Beach voters are fed up
with development. “I think it sends a strong message that people don’t
want to overdevelop Miami Beach….The people who have lived their entire lives
on Miami Beach overwhelmingly voted ‘no.’”
Voters were actually
asked to decide two ballot measures concerning the proposed hotel. One: to
approve a 99-year lease for construction of the privately financed hotel, and a second
measure about what to do with revenues generated from the hotel lease. The
second ballot measure passed overwhelmingly but is meaningless because the
hotel lease measure failed.
This is the second
time a major development project has been rejected by Miami Beach voters
recently. Last November Beach voters rejected an increase in floor area ratio
or FAR for the Ocean Terrace historic district in North Beach where a major condominium and
hotel project was proposed.
Tensions mounted
in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s vote with hotel backers condemning
mailings and robo-calls from mysterious PACs that called on voters to reject
the hotel lease plan. On Tuesday, Portman criticized the tactics, telling TRD “they
refused to declare who they were.” The PACs were also condemned by Miami
Beach Mayor Philip Levine who in a Facebook post said “There is little doubt
that the secretive efforts by the opponents of the measure resulted in the
referendum failing to reach the near super majority requirement.”
Opponents of the hotel
project said they had nothing to do with the PACs and said hotel backers spent
over $1 million in support of the project.
Original content
The Real Deal
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