City paves way for 'upscale' sales centers
By Bari Auerbach

In response to concerns about the aesthetic appearance of sales centers for new developments in Sunny Isles Beach, the City Commission recently passed an ordinance on first reading (at the Dec. 18, 2003 Commission meeting) pertaining to sales centers on Collins Avenue and Sunny Isles Boulevard.

The ordinance, amending the City's land development regulations, allows an exception to the rule that sales offices be located on and limited to a property which is being marketed and has received final site plan approval.

City Attorney Lynn Dannheisser explained, "The [LDR's presently provide] that temporary sales offices may be established by conditional use for the express purpose of marketing a real estate development project within a final site plan approval.

"This amendment creates an exception to this rule to allow a sales center to be permitted prior to site plan approval for a real estate development project if such property where the proposed sales center is to be located abuts Collins Avenue." The ordinance was later amended to encompass Sunny Isles Boulevard as well.

The ordinance also mandates that the property owner post a bond in the amount necessary (or provide other financial assurance) in case the City was ever placed in the position of having to remove the temporary sales center. In addition, the sales center is required to meet all land development regulations and parking requirements for such centers; and plans for the sales center would need to come back to the Commission for approval even though they will be permitted to be constructed under the new ordinance.

During a discussion period, Commissioner Lewis Thaler asked why a developer building on the east side of Collins Avenue would want to construct a sales center for the project off-site. In response, attorney Cliff Schulman of Greenberg Traurig explained, "You can normally pull a construction loan after you've sold 50 percent of your units - which means you actually now have money to start breaking ground.If I'm breaking ground on the east side [of Collins] but still have 50 percent of units to sell, [it would not be advantageous] to have to take down a sales center [a developer] has expended a lot of money on in order to start putting in the [building's] foundation.

"Many developers want to put the sales centers on the west side [of Collins] so that they know their east side property is clear for the development to start quickly once they get their construction funding.They like the flexibility of having it off-site on the west side of Collins while construction is actually going on along the east side."

Commissioner Ros Brezin noted, "I have no objection to having the sales center on the other side [of the development] but of course, I think that we should exercise certain rights.namely that the structures don't look [aesthetically] objectionable."

Schulman subsequently observed, "If you have a 'crappy looking' sales center, then that generally gives the client you're trying to sell your unit to [an impression of] the quality of the unit.So most [developers] are spending more money than ever heard of before for sales centers to convince people, 'If I do that right - I must be able to do my unit right.'"

Just before the sales center ordinance came up on the meeting agenda, the Commission granted a request with conditions for the developers of the Jade oceanfront condominium to construct an over $3 million sales center on the site of the property located at 17001 Collins Avenue.

Addressing other questions that came up regarding how long sales centers usually stay up, Schulman explained, "Generally, sales centers will stay up as long as they need to be in order to sell the units. In this city at the present time, based on the status of this economy, sales centers are not up that long because [this city] is 'selling like heck.' [Developers] don't want to keep [sales centers] up any longer than necessary.What they like to see on the site is dirt moving, foundations going in and buildings going up because everyday they have a sales center and don't have construction - they're paying interest money and not necessarily getting their money out."

During a public hearing on the ordinance, an Arlen House resident expressed concerns about sales trailers placed on the corner of 158th Street and Bayview Drive. In response, a representative of Dezer properties explained upon passage of the sales center ordinance being considered and site-plan approval, the trailers would be re-constructed and enhanced to reflect the same type of upscale image projected by the sales center formerly located by Trump International Sonesta Beach Resort.

The second reading of the ordinance was scheduled for Jan. 15, 2004 at the next regular City Commission meeting.


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