A key vote is coming Tuesday on plans for a long-awaited $220 million redesign of Fort Lauderdale\u2019s International Swimming Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n
The project is slated to rise on city-owned land next to the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center and its iconic dive tower<\/a>, one of the tallest in the world at nearly nine stories high.<\/p>\n Developer Mario Caprini plans to transform<\/a> the two Hall of Fame towers on the east and west end of the peninsula at 501 Seabreeze Blvd.<\/a><\/p>\n Commissioners are expected to approve the latest design plan for the west building during a City Hall meeting that begins at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n A nod from the commission will pave the way for a groundbreaking of the six-story building in June or July, said Caprini, CEO of Capital Group P3 of Florida and a partner in the project with Hensel Phelps Construction.<\/p>\n The west building will include a family-friendly aquarium and museum, a rooftop restaurant overlooking the Intracoastal and space for events and exhibits.<\/p>\n Design plans for the east building would likely come to the commission in the next three to six months, Caprini said.<\/p>\n The east building would include a dive grandstand, retail shop and cafe, elevated promenade, dryland training and teaching pool.<\/p>\n If all goes well, the entire project would open by December 2028, Caprini said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe design plan has come a long way,\u201d Commissioner Ben Sorensen said on Monday. \u201cI\u2019ve had multiple meetings with the swimmers and the developer and they\u2019ve made several changes. We are now in a good place.\u201d<\/p>\n The project is expected to transform the Swimming Hall of Fame into another landmark destination for Fort Lauderdale.<\/p>\n \u201cThis really does accomplish all of the changes we\u2019ve been looking for in terms of wrapping up the bookends of the peninsula,\u201d Commissioner Steve Glassman said.<\/p>\n Glassman said he has \u201cnot heard a peep\u201d from anyone worried about the projected lack of parking on site.<\/p>\n The project is short 146 parking spaces, but hopes to make that up by providing parking at the nearby Las Olas garage.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are also looking for off-site parking solutions,\u201d Caprini said. \u201cWe have a parking study and there is enough with the shared parking to meet the need. But we\u2019re looking at other options, including creating packages for families to park at the mall or downtown and grab a boat. It could be a Water Taxi or our own boats. They\u2019ll have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A key vote is coming Tuesday on plans for a long-awaited $220 million redesign of Fort Lauderdale\u2019s International…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,28,249,251,250,114,266,109],"class_list":{"0":"post-175556","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-lauderdale","8":"tag-broward-county","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-fort-lauderdale","11":"tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","12":"tag-fort-lauderdale-news","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-local-news","15":"tag-social"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}