On Collins Avenue in South Beach, along a strip of jazzy historic mid-century high-rise hotels that have defined the city skyline for decades, two giants are going at it. And the outcome of their long-running battle could forever alter the look and feel of a landmark Miami Beach district that harks back to the city’s Golden Age. Whether that’s for the good for the future of highly popular but perennially troubled South Beach, or a harbinger of its continued erosion, is the gist of the dispute.
The Godzilla vs. Kong clash of the icons pits the billionaire owners of , a late-Art Deco period gem, against the wealthy partners who own two other landmark hotels next door, the ultra-luxe and the much smaller, adjacent , both exemplars of . The Ritz-Carlton and Sagamore owners have teamed up on a controversial behind the beachfront hotels that’s starkly taller and bulkier than the originals around it.
But that’s only part of their plan. In a successful play for city approval after their proposal was twice rejected by the Beach’s historic preservation board, the Ritz-Sagamore team drew up a $12 million offer — with $4 million coming from the hotel owners and twice as much from local and state taxpayers — to remake a single block of Lincoln Road that also happens to be the Ritz-Carlton’s front entrance. The deal was explicitly conditioned on city approval of the condo tower, which came when the preservation board reversed itself last year.
Few dispute that the 100 block.