{"id":423149,"date":"2026-10-09T10:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T10:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/423149\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T10:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T10:30:12","slug":"hollywood-greenlights-30-story-live-local-tower-at-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/423149\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood greenlights 30-story Live Local tower at beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

A proposed luxury tower that triggered a lawsuit and six years of heated debate has gotten its final green light from the Hollywood commission, more than six years after the developer pitched the plan to build a 30-story condo on taxpayer-owned land at 1301 S. Ocean Drive.<\/p>\n

In the years since, opponents have come out in force<\/a> against the project \u2014 and did so again during a marathon meeting that started at 1 p.m. Wednesday and ended shortly before 4 a.m. Thursday.<\/p>\n

But in the end, Hollywood commissioners approved Portofino Hollywood, a controversial Live Local project slated to rise on taxpayer-owned land at the beach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been years of division,\u201d Vice Mayor Traci Callari said before the 6-1 vote. \u201cAnd yet here we are at 3:40 a.m. in the morning \u2014 and common ground has still not been reached. Today I\u2019m making the decision to vote (yes) and move forward because six years has been a long challenging time. It\u2019s time to just move forward. And I guess the courts will make the final decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioner Caryl Shuham cast the lone \u201cno\u201d vote, citing a number of objections, including the height of the building.<\/p>\n

The 30-story tower is slated to rise 375.4 feet high.<\/p>\n

Cat Uden, a longtime resident who has opposed the project<\/a> from the beginning, spoke up again Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2021 and 2022 when I spoke publicly about this project, I called it a monument to greed. And it still is,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is not a good deal for this city. It\u2019s a good deal for the developer. You\u2019re adding a 30-story condo tower in a spot that currently has no condos. This is a 99-year lease and one day it will be an island.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four years ago, commissioners approved a 99-year ground lease at the site, which includes the city-owned Harry Berry Park and a community center.<\/p>\n

A lawsuit filed in Broward Circuit Court in June argues the deal violates the city charter and requires voter approval by referendum.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit lists the city of Hollywood and Miami-based Related Group as defendants in a case that could dictate<\/a> what happens to the land.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issues pending in that lawsuit are yet to be adjudicated,\u201d said Sydney Satz, an attorney for the plaintiffs. \u201cThis is something that will ultimately have to be decided by a judge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next hearing is set for Oct. 28.<\/p>\n

Keith Poliakoff, attorney for Miami-based Related Group, argues the lawsuit will not succeed in blocking the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been fully approved by a 6-1 vote of the commission,\u201d he said. \u201cWhile anyone has a right to challenge any approval, the courts almost always side with the municipality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AnAn artist\u2019s illustration shows a luxury condo tower with workforce housing apartments planned on public land at 1301 South Ocean Drive, now home to a park and community center in Hollywood. (SOM\/CFE\/ARX, Courtesy)<\/p>\n

Related Group now plans to build 126 luxury condos and 84 workforce housing apartments and hopes to break ground within the next 18 months once the lawsuit is resolved, Poliakoff said.<\/p>\n

The developer had planned to build a 27-story tower with 111 luxury condos, but earlier this year added workforce housing under the Live Local Act<\/a>, effectively bypassing local density and height restrictions.<\/p>\n

An amendment to the state\u2019s Live Local Act that took effect in July allows developers to build workforce housing on government land in a bid to tackle the state\u2019s shortage of affordable housing.<\/p>\n

Commissioners approved the change in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a six-year journey to get to this point,\u201d Poliakoff said. \u201cWe\u2019re absolutely thrilled that this issue can be placed behind us. We\u2019re excited for the groundbreaking and the future opportunities this new development will have in store.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of the deal the developer made with the city, Related Group has agreed to build a new community center on the city\u2019s dime.<\/p>\n

Original plans for a two-story community center that would have been 20,000 square feet have changed. The plan now is to build a four-story, 15,000-square-foot community center with a roof deck.<\/p>\n

Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A proposed luxury tower that triggered a lawsuit and six years of heated debate has gotten its final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,28,249,251,250,686,114,266,109],"class_list":["post-423149","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-hollywood","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423149","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=423149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}