shared details<\/a> and renderings with the audience, speaking for more than an hour.<\/p>\nToothaker explained that the project is still undergoing review by the city\u2019s Development Review Committee, a process that can take several months.<\/p>\n
Chris Gandolfo, senior vice president of Tavistock, provided an overview of what has already been built as part of Phase 1, including the updated Pier Sixty-Six resort with 325 hotel rooms; four buildings with a total of 88 residences; 30,000 square feet of commercial space and 8,000 square feet of office space.<\/p>\n
Gandolfo then shared what\u2019s in the works as part of Phase 2.<\/p>\n
A total of 339 condos would be split between four towers.<\/p>\n
Building A on the north side would have 101 residences.<\/p>\n
On the south side, Building B would have 90 residences; Building C would have 75; and Building D would have 73.<\/p>\n
The project would also include 25,000 of retail space; 29,000 square feet of office space; 17,000 square feet of restaurant space; a boutique grocery store that\u2019s 14,000 square feet; and a 1.5-mile waterfront promenade open to the public.<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/tfl-l-pier-sixty-six-renderings-100126-02.jpg\")
An artist\u2019s illustration showing a waterfront view of the new towers proposed for the Pier Sixty-Six property in Fort Lauderdale. (Tavistock Development Company\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n
With renderings on display behind her, Toothaker touted the design of the towers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things we worked really hard to do is to make these buildings feel open,\u201d she said. \u201cSome of the older buildings in Fort Lauderdale tend to be very concrete heavy. It\u2019s just a wall of concrete that goes up with some metal balconies.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the Phase 2 towers, Toothaker said, have a lot of glass.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery expensive to build, but always preferable,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of glass gives you a lot of visibility and makes the buildings feel fluid and open. And that\u2019s a really important design element that we included here. You\u2019re not just looking at a wall of concrete.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even the parking garages look beautiful and interesting, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really tried to give them a wow factor,\u201d Toothaker said. \u201cIt\u2019s rare to see that. It\u2019s hard to make a parking garage beautiful. But we really made an effort. There are elements to them that are beautiful. We did spend a lot of time on the garages because this is such an important site. It is a gateway site to our beach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toothaker explained that Tavistock owned 6.59 acres of land on the south side that\u2019s not submerged.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could definitely fill it in,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to make it clear that that is permissible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, Tavistock has decided to take 1 acre of dry land to create a water basin. That acre of land could have been used to build one or two more towers, Toothaker said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey decided to take some of that land and give it back to Mother Nature,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a marina. It\u2019s just a water basin. That\u2019s a really huge opportunity and benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/tfl-l-Pier-Sixty-Six-0124-001.jpg\")
The newly redesigned Pier Sixty-Six in Fort Lauderdale, shown on Jan. 23, 2025. (Mike Stocker\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
\nSpreading the word<\/p>\n
Maus was in the crowd, watching in silence.<\/p>\n
So was Christine Winkelvoss, a fellow Harbour Inlet Association board member who has launched an online petition opposing the project.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the meeting at Pier Sixty-Six, Winkelvoss sent out a media alert saying that neighbors were mobilizing a unified presence at the meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than negotiating compromises, our resident coalition is standing firm, demanding that the developer respect the law and stick strictly to the area\u2019s existing 120-foot height limit instead of building the proposed 270-foot high-rises,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are deeply concerned about the dangerous precedent this sets for building heights, traffic gridlock along SE 17th Street, and public safety within a designated Coastal High Hazard Area.\u201d<\/p>\n
The crowd who came out to Tavistock\u2019s ballroom meeting was quiet and polite, Winkelvoss acknowledged.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I can assure you there is a lot of outrage,\u201d she told the Sun Sentinel. \u201cAnd I think there was a lot of shock. I think some people were getting first eyes on it. I just think a lot of people have had their heads in the sand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winkelvoss, who left Philadelphia for Fort Lauderdale three years ago to enjoy the beach, says she is doing her part to spread the word about what might be in store if the Phase 2 project wins approval.<\/p>\n
Her petition, titled \u201cProtect Fort Lauderdale Neighborhoods: Stop Giant Towers Next to Single-Family Homes,\u201d had 545 signatures as of Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The petition urges the Fort Lauderdale commission to reject Tavistock\u2019s request to rezone the land to a Planned Development District to make way for towers taller than 120 feet. \u201cGiant towers don\u2019t belong next to single-family neighborhoods,\u201d the petition says.<\/p>\n
Winkelvoss says she enjoys going to the restaurants at Pier Sixty-Six, including Pier Top, the rotating cocktail lounge on the resort\u2019s 17th floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see Pier Top from my kitchen and it\u2019s lovely,\u201d she said. \u201cI do go there. And I can see my home. But I don\u2019t see into my backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Winkelvoss had her way, the developer would build towers that stand 120 feet high.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe understand they were granted these land rights,\u201d she said. \u201cBut 120 feet is the max. Those zones are there to protect neighborhoods and act as buffer zones. They bought it knowing that and now they want to make this massive deviation.\u201d<\/p>\n
World-class design?<\/p>\n
In the days following Tavistock\u2019s community meeting, some residents sent emails to Tavistock praising the project, said Jessi Blakley, Tavistock\u2019s vice president of Marketing and Communications.<\/p>\n
\u201cHi Jessi and Stephanie, I just wanted to thank you and your team for doing such a spectacular job with the event on Tuesday evening,\u201d said one email Blakley shared with the Sun Sentinel. \u201cThe designs are world-class, and IMO (in my opinion) will be an overall positive for the neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blakley declined to reveal the resident\u2019s identity, citing the controversial nature of the project.<\/p>\n
Some people are sharing their enthusiasm for the project, but more behind the scenes, she told the Sun Sentinel.<\/p>\n
Toothaker said\u00a0the project as currently proposed is a low-density project.<\/p>\n
When Tavistock made a development agreement with the city in 2018, it agreed to cap the total density to 575 units on the entire 31-acre site, Toothaker said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat works out to 18.5 units per acre,\u201d Toothaker said. \u201cThat\u2019s extremely low density. On top of that, when we came out with this Phase 2 plan, the total number of units is 444 not 575. That works out to 14.3 units per acre.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vice Mayor Ben Sorensen, the district commissioner for the neighborhood, says he had serious concerns about the density of the project years ago \u2014 and those concerns remain.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe when we develop we have to do so in collaboration with the neighborhood,\u201d he said. \u201cResidents are worried about the traffic impacts. They\u2019re worried about the height of the towers. They\u2019re asking what this means for the roads, the water pipes, the sewage pipes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some residents might be jazzed about the project, Sorensen said. But they\u2019re not the ones calling him.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one has told me they\u2019re incredibly excited about the project, but that does not mean there are no residents who support the project,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of residents I see when I\u2019m at the Pier Sixty-Six property who are there and enjoying it. I\u2019m sure there are people who are excited about it. I have not heard from them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How high is too high? Several residents \u2014 Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis included \u2014 are raising concerns…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,28,249,251,250,114,266,109],"class_list":["post-416713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county","tag-florida","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416713","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=416713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/tfl-l-pier-sixty-six-renderings-100126-03.jpg\")
An artist\u2019s illustration showing what’s planned next for the Pier Sixty-Six property in Fort Lauderdale. The developer plants to build four new towers. All would stand 270 feet high. (Tavistock Development Company\/Courtesy)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/tfl-l-Pier-Sixty-Six-0124-004.jpg\")
The newly remodeled Pier Sixty-Six, shown on Jan. 23, 2025, has brought a new level of luxury to Fort Lauderdale, according to Mayor Dean Trantalis. (Mike Stocker\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n