The developer of the Savoy Hotel at 425 Ocean Drive is scrapping plans to build 24 condo units and a mechanical car lift system at a proposed garage two block away.
At Wednesday’s Miami Beach Planning Board hearing, representatives for Savoy Hotel Partners LLC said that the robotic system was “fraught with potential problems” such as the possibility of motorists getting stuck in the lift in the event of a building power outage.
As a result, Savoy’s architect Allan Shulman, principal of Shulman + Associates Design & Architecture, submitted a new design for the seven-story garage at 400 Collins Avenue that includes a conventional ramp and 156 car spaces, 43 more than in the previous plan with the mechanical lift. The residential units have been paired down to five on the top two floors. The mixed-use structure, located on the site of a 19,500-square-foot-parking lot, will still have roughly 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.
“The idea to create an infill building is still the same,” Shulman told planning board members. “The building’s profile is still the same.”
He said the residential units will have a private elevator and a private parking area. Each townhouse will feature private decks and pools, Shulman added. However, the garage will be primarily used to provide parking for guests staying at the 75-room Savoy Hotel, which is currently undergoing an expansion.
Based on advice from the city’s planning and zoning department staff, the planning board delayed its vote on the new design until Sept. 30 because Savoy Hotel Partners still needs to present the new design to the city’s historic preservation board.
Savoy Hotel Partners purchased 400 Collins in June 2005 for $4 million, according to Miami-Dade County property records. The company is owned by New York-based Allied Savoy, an entity controlled by Eric Hadar, chairman and CEO of the real estate development and investment firm Allied Partners.