Searstown site is going cosmopolitan with three stylish new towers

FORT LAUDERDALE — Say goodbye to Searstown and hello to 901 North, a three-tower project expected to bring even more skyline drama to the trendy Flagler Village neighborhood.

Demolition crews began hauling away the Sears building piece by piece in September and are expected to finish in January 2024, two years after the landmark store that opened 66 years ago at 901 N. Federal Highway closed its doors for the last time.

The primo property, now owned by Denver-based Aimco, will once again roar to life under a plan to build three sky-high apartment towers with 797 units and a 188-room hotel. The towers would be connected by an eight-story parking podium lined with offices, shops, restaurants, a 17,500-square-foot grocery store and 55,000-square-foot gym.

The project also calls for a two-story glass building along Federal Highway with artist studios, shops and large sidewalks to frame the street.

Aimco bought the 5.7-acre site at the busy corner of Sunrise Boulevard and Federal Highway for $64 million in June 2022.

The company plans to break ground in 2025, said Derek Ullian, Aimco’s senior vice president of development in Fort Lauderdale.

The tallest tower will perch next to Sunrise Boulevard and has been redesigned to serve as a beacon in the downtown skyline after nightfall, Ullian said.

Under the proposal currently under review by city staff, Tower 1 will have 30 stories rising 353 feet high. Tower 2 will have 21 stories rising 235 feet high. And Tower 3 will have 30 stories rising 344 feet high.

RK Centers, the property’s previous owner, envisioned a five-tower megaproject that would have cost $400 million to build.

Aimco can’t put a number on its project because the company has not gone out for pricing yet, Ullian said.

Under RK Centers’ plan, the two tallest towers would have stood 306 feet high, shorter than Aimco’s “beacon tower” by 47 feet.

‘Begging for trouble’

After RK Centers won the required approvals from city staff in late 2021, Mayor Dean Trantalis warned of the nightmarish gridlock that would come with such a blockbuster project.

“We’re begging for trouble once this project is complete,” he said while trying to persuade his colleagues to call up the project for a commission vote.

Trantalis noted that traffic was already a nightmare at the notoriously busy intersection, but failed to garner support for a commission vote.

What does he say now that the project has a new developer and a new design?

“The more recent renderings I saw a couple months ago showed a more scaled-down proposal,” Trantalis said. “Every time I meet with the developer I encourage them to reduce the intensity of the project so it doesn’t overwhelm the adjacent neighborhood. As market conditions change I think the plans will change. I see Flagler Village as being saturated with high-end rental units and I think that’s going to impact the project. I think it will shrink a little more.”

The city’s Development Review Committee is expected to make the final call on whether to approve Aimco’s project. But the commission can call up the project for a vote within 30 days of the committee giving it a green light.

Will the mayor call it up? Trantalis says it’s too early to say.

“I am very concerned (about the traffic) but I don’t have the authority to dictate to staff on the approval process,” he said. “At the same time, I see there’s a good-faith effort being made by the developer to come up with a solution that works for them and us. They are starting to respond to the concerns and hopefully that will reduce the traffic count as they try to shoehorn this project into that space.”

Gateway to downtown

The project proposed by RK Centers would have generated 11,000 total trips a day.

Aimco’s project would generate 10,507 total daily trips, said Chris Cooper, director of Fort Lauderdale’s Development Services Department.

But Cooper says the daily trips decrease to 5,837 when you take into account internal trips — people heading to multiple uses on site — and driveway trips like drop-offs.

RK Centers had planned on constructing 1,312 parking spaces. Aimco’s redesign increases that to 1,977 spaces.

Aimco has made several changes to the initial plan submitted in May, Ullian said.

“We have made architectural refinements to respond to feedback from the community, commissioners and city staff, including variations in materials and façade depths,” he said. “We have enhanced the public spaces and added green areas accessible to the community. The development promotes walkability, with an emphasis on neighborhood restaurants, shops and a boutique market.”

Commissioner Steve Glassman said the design submitted earlier this year lacked the drama you’d expect to see in a project of such magnitude at the entrance to Flagler Village.

“When it changed from RK Centers to Aimco I wasn’t happy with the change in the design — and I made that very clear to the development team,” he said. “Since then there’s been a lot of changes that make the design much more significant as a gateway to downtown. They’re talking about artist studios and a pedestrian trail. They changed the architecture and the materials. And I love the amount of open space. I’ve seen the renderings. It’s much improved.”

‘You can breathe’

Longtime resident Michael Albetta has seen the renderings, too, and he likes what he sees.

“The old project looked like they were putting 25 pounds of concrete in a five-pound bag,” said Albetta, president of the Lake Ridge Civic Association. “With this project you feel like you can breathe. It’s not going to be as overwhelming. It’s not a concrete jungle like it was before.”

Lake Ridge gave the Aimco project a thumbs up after the development team presented the new renderings at the civic association’s meeting last month.

“We like these renderings because it coincides with what’s happening in Flagler Village, with all the new hotels and new apartment towers,” Albetta said. “We like the new project for Searstown.”

Commissioner John Herbst says he has not yet seen the new renderings, but he was fine with the first ones.

“You have your greater height and density back from the street, so you’re not creating a canyon effect on Federal Highway,” he said. “I’d rather have something set back a little bit and get higher the further you go into the site. That makes it a much more attractive project.”

As for the taller towers, Herbst says that doesn’t bother him, not in that part of town at least.

“One thing we look at is neighborhood compatibility,” he said. “If anything, that project is going to anchor that whole corridor at Sunrise and Federal Highway.”

Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan