2010-1118 Regular City Commission Meeting

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Summary Minutes: Regular City Commission Meeting November 18,2010 City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida Clifford Schulman, Esq. introduced Eduardo Castifieira, Architect President/CEO of Axioma3Architects who presented renderings of the Project. This site is "island conditioned" because it is surrounded by major boulevards with a lot oftraffic. This was to be a Civic Project, a project that had to appeal to every age. The focus was on a pedestrian friendly environment and something that would be part of a Town Center setting and of a Park. One of the things they did was to create parking at the ground level, and the Park element became the roof at 14 feet from the ground level. In order to not create a bottle-neck effect and to open the views, they created an urban plaza at ground level, the building was set back in excess of the zoning requirements. The parking garage is layered and hidden. They created grand steps that can become sitting areas for people to enjoy the Park and look back towards the Great Lawn, and events that could take place on the Great Lawn. The steps take the user to a series of levels that culminate at 34 feet above the ground, you clear the overhead pass and you start getting fantastic views of the Ocean. The Aquarium is very educational and tied in with the schools, and there is an art wall where the architecture becomes the wall. Mr. Castifieira said one of the things that they found very advantages in this site was that it is not deep into the City, it is a Gateway into the City, and is ideal in capturing traffic at a point and not allowing the traffic to go all the way to the Collins A venue intersection. In the design, they identified very early on that the entrances and exists had to be at the east side of the project and not further down. There will be a construction site entrance for trucks which would be approximately 900 feet from the intersection of Collins A venue and Sunny Isles Boulevard. They wanted to keep it away from that intersection, and if you are going east you enter on the bottom, the ingress and egress is basically on your west side. Commissioner Brezin asked how much space is allocated for the restaurant in the facility, and Mr. Schulman said in the main building, we don't know how big the restaurant is going to be until we have a vendor, but it is anticipated and the City wanted a minimum of30,000 square feet of high end commercial space. In addition, in the Parking Garage that is being built on the south side of Sunny Isles Boulevard, will be another 19,000 square feet of retail at street level. Mayor Ede1cup said it is not too different from the old buildings that were there because they had about 45,000 square feet in them. Commissioner Goodman asked about the parking area for commercial deliveries, is it high enough for trucks to get in there, and Mr. Castifieira said yes, and they had identified this edge to be the least likely to have any pedestrians, and so that becomes the back ofthe house, and there would be loading zones located there, and when they are loading and unloading it will not be visible from the street. Joe Milton stated they have been developing here since 1993, and have owned land here since 1982, and this is the first chance to really give back. They are putting in 30% of their own private equity to develop this, they have 70% from institutional lenders that they have to personally guarantee because this market doesn't allow for anything less. Mayor Edelcup opened the meeting for public discussion. Concerns were raised on the safety of the animals, and Mr. Schulman said they have engaged the services of a marina consultant to ensure the protection of the animals, and noted that this is not a major aquarium, it will have 65,000 square feet, and they will basically be dividing it into areas rather than one major aquarium bowl, and there will be a place for children to interact with 6