Just two weeks ago, Fort Lauderdale was ready to scrap a long-term plan to spend $200 million building a new City Hall and purchase a less expensive office tower downtown instead.
That plan went up in smoke on Tuesday when Commissioner Pamela Beasley-Pittman walked back comments she made two weeks ago saying she wanted to look into buying Tower 101 for $86 million.
Commissioner Ben Sorensen broached the topic of buying the office tower after midnight on Jan. 20, four days after the commission received an email from City Manager Rickelle Williams saying the building was for sale.
Vice Mayor John Herbst and Beasley-Pittman sided with Sorensen. Mayor Dean Trantalis and Commissioner Steve Glassman rejected the idea outright, noting the city was already in negotiations with a developer to build a new City Hall.
Fort Lauderdale lost its City Hall when a historic rainstorm flooded the basement in April 2023.
Damaged beyond repair, the building was permanently closed and later demolished.
In May 2025, the city received an unsolicited proposal from a developer for the design, build and maintenance of a new City Hall. Fort Lauderdale accepted competing proposals between June 6 and Aug. 5.
On July 11, the owner of Tower 101 sent an email to the city in July offering to sell his building to the city.
The mayor and commissioners didn’t find out about the offer until getting an email from the city manager on Jan. 16.
After the Tower 101 offer made headlines, the city got another offer on Monday from a bigger downtown office tower hoping the city will buy it instead. The owners of 1 East Broward want $122.5 million for the building.
“Honestly, where does this end?” Trantalis said during a City Hall meeting on Tuesday. “Every building on the block is going to come to us now and say, ‘Buy me, buy me.’ I thought we made a commitment. I thought we had a vision. I thought we were looking to the future. Has that changed?”
Rendering of a new City Hall proposed by the Fort Lauderdale commission’s top-ranked development team. (PALMA, courtesy)
Commissioners ranked the development teams on Dec. 2 and are expected to approve a deal with the top-ranked team after the city wraps up negotiations in the coming weeks.
A little history: Two weeks ago, when the commission came up about purchasing Tower 101 to serve as the next City Hall, Pittman told the commission: “I think we should entertain the offer.”
On Tuesday, she said she meant she wanted to look at buying Tower 101 in addition to building a new City Hall.
“I was more interested in what else could be done with the building,” she said.
But after much discussion, Pittman said she was concerned about the cost involved in analyzing the purchase of an existing office tower and wanted to drop the whole idea.
Early in the meeting, Trantalis grilled Williams, the city manager, on why she did not let the commission know sooner about the Tower 101 offer.
“The commission had made a decision on the direction it was going,” he said. “And now I understand the people at 1 East Broward have submitted a request for us to review purchasing their building. So tell us where this is all going. What direction did you expect this commission to go considering decisions that have been made so far?”
Williams told the mayor that staff determined the offer was incomplete and not viable.
“So my question is why didn’t you bring it up at the goal-setting session (on Jan. 13) knowing that it was a key point in the discussions we were having at that time? I’m curious as to why you kept it a secret from us. Going forward, we need to know what you’re doing, especially if you’re doing it against or contrary to what the commission had agreed to.”
Williams defended herself and her staff.
“I want to make clear that there was no pursuit of the 101 proposal or offer,” she said.
Sorensen argued the city should move forward with analyzing the possibility of purchasing the 101 Tower.
The analysis, including two appraisals, a property survey and title search, would cost at least $120,000, Williams told the commission.
“That’s a lot of money to squander if we know we’re not going to go in that direction,” the mayor said.
Sorensen suggested doing a lower-cost analysis on both the 101 Tower and 1 East Broward.
Glassman disagreed.
“How many buildings are we going to accept these offers from?” he asked. “How far are we taking this? Are we saying to every building owner in the city, give us your tired, your poor, your old buildings yearning to be free? How far down that road are we going?”
Herbst argued the commission owes it to the taxpayers to look at the 1 East Broward tower, located on the northeast corner of Broward Boulevard and Andrews Avenue.
“Right now commercial office space is on sale,” he said. “This is a buying opportunity that is once in a lifetime. We will never get property this cheap ever again. It would be derelict for us not to consider this.”
Trantalis reminded him that a majority of the commission had already agreed to stick with the original plan for a new City Hall.
Herbst made another attempt to persuade the commission to look at buying an existing building.
“This is a huge financial decision that the city is going to be burdened with for the next 30 years,” he said.
Herbst warned the commission that the city might be dealing with a catastrophic financial loss if voters approve a plan in November to eliminate property taxes on homesteaded property.
“I have no doubt that this is going to pass,” Herbst said. “I’m voting for it. Our tax base is going to be declining. We need to be leaning into the fact that we’ve got to start scaling down operations. Winter is coming. Let’s just not put our heads in the sand.”
Glassman told the commission that buying an existing building might not save that much when you add in the cost of retrofitting the space.
“I’ve been speaking to a lot of folks in the construction field and the development field in the last few weeks since our last meeting,” he said. “You might get these buildings for a good cost but you’ll probably spend that exact amount in retrofitting. So at the end of the day the savings is not really that much. I just don’t see the sense in looking at these buildings at all.”
Trantalis posed a pointed question: “I would like to know what is the end game here? We spend tens of thousands of dollars for the analysis. What’s the end game? Are we going to want to buy one of these buildings or are we going to go with the original decision?”
Herbst argued that spending $250,000 to review two buildings and save $100 million is well worth the investment.
Glassman countered with this: “I just think this is a rabbit hole we’re going down right now. We made a commitment.”
Sorensen had one final comment: “I think we’re missing an opportunity just to analyze, but thank you.”
On Thursday, the owner of the Tower 101 told the Sun Sentinel he’s hoping the city will still consider buying the building.
“An administrative oversight should not penalize Fort Lauderdale residents from exploring an opportunity for massive savings,” Anthony DiTommaso Jr. said. “The city had the proposal from Tower 101 since July and did not advance it. Fiscal responsibility mandates a feasibility analysis for Tower 101 immediately to secure the best outcome for our community. Our ownership is ready to engage.”
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan