FORT LAUDERDALE | Icon Las Olas | 460 FT | 45 FLOORS

[mr jones]

Icon Las Olas
Residential (retail shops at street level)
42 Stories, ~455ft
272 units (1-4 bedrooms)
500 E Las Olas Blvd, 33301
http://www.iconlasolas.com/










Lobby


Kitchen

By Brittany Wallman | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
October 3, 2007

FORT LAUDERDALE Under threat of multimillion-dollar lawsuits, city commissioners voted 3-2 late Tuesday night to allow the controversial Icon Las Olas condo to be built next to the historic Stranahan House.

A previous City Commission had approved the Icon condo on the Hyde Park Market site, but that was threatened by a court decision. Commissioners were ordered by the courts to consider whether the tower should receive a "certificate of appropriateness" to build on land that has been declared historic and is next to a historic property.

Stranahan House supporters hoped the historic angle would help them achieve what multiple lawsuits and years of passionate fighting have failed to bring so far — a denial of the 42-story tower they don't want next door.

Commissioner Christine Teel, a longtime supporter of Stranahan House, nevertheless said the "die was cast" when a previous City Commission voted to allow it.

"I don't see us backing out of it now," she said.

Teel joined Commissioner Cindi Hutchinson and Vice Mayor Carlton Moore in voting that the permit should indeed be granted.

Commissioner Charlotte Rodstrom and Mayor Jim Naugle disagreed, saying the condo is too large next to the city's most historic site, the 1901 Stranahan House, former home of city pioneers Frank and Ivy Stranahan.

"I feel the developer and the owner of the property have a right to build something on this property," said Naugle. "… But certainly not something that ignores all our laws."

The vote came after advice from City Attorney Harry Stewart that legally, commissioners were obliged to vote in favor of Icon, and that to vote against it could expose the city to huge financial damages.

The developer, Related Group, and landowner, Coolidge South Markets Equities, warned the city last week that if commissioners voted no Tuesday night, the city would be sued again, and $120 million in damages would be sought.

"Too much to risk. Too much to lose," read a flier mailed to some city residents in recent days. Printed atop a gambler's roulette wheel and mailed to some city taxpayers was a two-page flier warning that "the city of Fort Lauderdale can't risk a $120 million bet!"

Voters had agreed years ago to buy the Icon site for a park, but the city's eminent domain effort failed. The developer and owner filed a counter-lawsuit against the city for damages. The Icon tower was part of the resulting lawsuit settlement.

Stranahan lawyers argued commissioners wouldn't be made to pay for a decision the courts required.

"The $120 million threat by the developers made against you as individuals, against this city and against my clients is hollow," Stranahan House attorney William Scherer told commissioners.

The 1 ½ acre of asphalt on the New River was home for years to the small Hyde Park Market grocery store. But decades ago, before the city incorporated, the land was a camping ground for Seminole Indians who canoed to do business with Frank Stranahan's trading post next door, historians say.

Stranahan attorney Tucker Gibbs said he wasn't sure what his side would do next, but the case appeared headed back to the courts.

The vote was another disappointment for Barbara Keith, the quiet, 63-year-old, white-haired director of Stranahan House.

Preventing the tower next door and protecting the historic, two-story house from a hulking neighbor has been her cause for eight years.

She was back Tuesday.

The Stranahan House and its neighboring land is a connection not just to the past of the city, she said, but to everyone's history here. For Keith, this is where her children grew up, where she has lived for 43 years, where she, like Ivy Stranahan, taught school.

"I could never walk away," she said.

"What do we say?" she added. "Never, never, never, never, never give up."

The Icon Las Olas will become Fort Lauderdale's tallest building. The Las Olas Riverhouse is our current at 42 stories, 417ft.

Photo credits: www.iconlasolas.com