The wildest Spring Break hotel on South Beach may soon be the saving grace for local residents desperate for affordable housing. A redevelopment project is being proposed for the historic Clevelander Hotel in Miami Beach, which would involve converting the Art Deco property into a 22-story residential tower with an affordable housing component.
Jesta Group, the hotel owner, has stated that the project’s success depends on the Live Local Act. This recently enacted state law offers tax breaks and zoning workarounds to incentivize the development of affordable and workforce housing. The proposed plans include a high-end restaurant on the ground floor of a 22-story structure that would maintain the historic Art Deco façades of the Clevelander and Essex while converting the hotel into a residential development. Jesta is also behind a $300 million plan to redevelop the North Bay Village’s Shuckers Bar & Grill site. The firm would potentially look to relocate the Clevelander within South Florida.
“Since purchasing the Clevelander Hotel and Bar a few years ago, we have been proud to operate this legendary and iconic establishment in South Beach. Although we are happy to continue operating as we have, some have expressed a desire that we change our business model at the property,” Jesta Group senior managing director Anthony O’Brien says in a statement to The Miami Herald. “With the Live Local Act, we now have a unique opportunity to do that.”
In March, Florida legislators passed the Live Local Act, a comprehensive $711 million plan to construct affordable housing units, provide tax breaks to incentivize new construction and offer interest-free loans to afford down payments. The law took effect in July and allows developers to bypass local zoning laws on height and density if they allocate at least 40% of residential units in their projects as affordable for a minimum of 30 years. Affordable units are those suitable for households with earnings up to 120% of the area median income, which is approximately $75,000 in Miami-Dade County.
Of all the Art Deco hotels on Ocean Drive, the Clevelander, built in 1938, is one of the most iconic, but also the noisiest, attracting partygoers from around the world to its streetside pool and patio. It epitomizes what city leaders have been trying to change about the party culture of South Beach, and in 2021, when the city tried to tighten the alcohol sale curfew from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m., the Clevelander owners successfully sued the city to remain open till five.
Photo rendering courtesy of Jesta Group
