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Series: 321 OCEAN ENRIQUE NORTEN SOUTH BEACH
321 OCEAN ENRIQUE NORTEN SOUTH BEACH
April 28, 2014
By David Arthur Walters
MIAMI MIRROR
MIAMI BEACHThe sign on the real estate development at 321 Ocean Drive in the South
Pointe district of Miami Beachs famed South Beach attracted my attention because it appeared
to be an unpermitted temporary real estate sign; to wit, a sign without a permit decal affixed to
it as required by city ordinance.
My broken windows theory study of unpermitted signs in Miami Beach proceeded with the
notion that the proliferation of unpermitted signs in Miami Beach is a sign of a lax enforcement
culture that encourages far more significant violations of law and therefore attracts
lawbreakers of all sorts. That is, I expected to find a high incidence of serious violations of law
hidden behind every unpermitted sign, and I was consequently determined to leave no rock
unturned to expose what crawls underneath each of them.
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A former Internal Affairs commander said my job would be easy. If you follow someone
around long enough, you will discover violations.Well, it follows that to reduce the number of
violations all one has to do is stop following people around. It is no wonder that we have such
rude drivers and a high rate of traffic accidents.

I have been following several so-called phased permitting projects around South Beach. The
citys newly adopted phased permitting program is a confession of governmental incompetence
that allows developers to proceed with construction without a full permit providing they
inspect their own projects and promise not to hold the city responsible for its abnegation of its
duties to protect the safety and welfare of the public. City Manager Jimmy Morales called me
obsessed for being concerned with phased projects. I have pointed out that he and the
building official allowed construction to proceed and continue at favored developer Russell
Galbuts Gale Suites at Kaskades Hotel renovation without the prerequisite environmental
permits.
321 Ocean condominium project was spot-zoned to increase the height limitation and cram two
buildings into a narrow space between two small condominium buildings after the developers
threatened to sell the property to hotel developers; one of its sponsors happens to be City of
Miami Beach Commissioner Ed Tobin, one of the so-called reformers who arranged a coup over
which set of developers would develop the city. The project proceeded full blast, from ground
to roof, with a single phase permit, contradicting the meaning of phased permitting, i.e.
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construction that is permitted phase by phase until the final project is approved. Phased permit
B1306734 for 321 Ocean was revoked on April 10, 2014, with the infrastructure nearly
completed, and master permit B1202521 for the $18 million job was approved on April Fools
Day, also to be privately inspected by private inspection firm MTCI Private Inspection Services
LLC.
Returning to the superficial but significant aspects of lax and selective enforcement, Mariano
Fernandez, the new building department director whom the new city manager brought over
from Miami to help him reduce corruption in the wake of the most recent FBI arrests, shirked
his responsibility for removing signs after I asked him to do so as per Section 138-11(c) of the
local code providing for removals: The building official may initiate proceedings that result in
the removal of any sign erected or maintained without a permit. That is not his job, he
informed me, and passed the buck to the new code compliance director, Hernan Cardeno, a
sworn police officer and a public corruption FBI liaison who, as can be seen by continued
violations, could care less about unpermitted signs unless someone risks retaliation by filing a
formal complaint.

I asked George Castell, a faithful code compliance administrator who has been around a long
time, to see if the sign, 321 OCEAN ENRIQUE NORTEN SOUTH BEACH, had been permitted,
thinking that perhaps someone forgot to apply the permit sticker to the sign after purchasing it
for $25, questions unasked as to its nature, at city hall.
I also asked him about permission for Tom Murphys Coastal Condominiums, Coastal
Construction Groups signs on the site. Advertisements of all sorts, including a picture of the
contractors mother if he likes, may appear on the shell of a fence about a site, and be
permitted all at once, with some limitations as to size. But Murphy had two freestanding signs,
on posts, and one sign hanging on the fence, that sign not bearing a contractors license
number as required by state law. Temporary construction signs, in distinction from temporary
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real estate signs, must be permitted but do not have the permits actually affixed to them. That
way, people will not know that ordinance is rarely complied; if someone complains, the sign is
immediately permitted without consequence for noncompliance.

Enrique Norten sign on left, and mounted on far right on building
Castell filled out a form displayed online, identifying me as a complainant. There went any
opportunity of me working for those folks unless they are like the developer whose property
investigated, who said, You are a (series of expletives deleted) and I mean that as a
compliment. I followed up weeks later since the sign was still on the premises, now with a
spotlight on it at night. Castell followed up, informing me that all the signs had been removed.
His information from the field was false: the Coastal sign had been mounted on the building
under construction. And when I passed by a week later, the Enrique Norten sign had been
placed beside it. I followed up again, and finally the Enrique Norten sign disappeared. The
Coastal sign was still present. Of course, I was not given an explanation as to whether or not the
contractors sign had finally been permitted, and why it had not been removed previously.

Enrique Norten sign taken down
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I was astonished by the fact that whoever was responsible for the Enrique Norten sign did not
simply go over to city hall and buy a permit for the sign, sight unseen. All one has to do is
provide a name and location, and hand over $25. Was the owner/developer of the multimillion-
dollar property too lazy or too cheap to get a permit?
But wait a minute, a reader might ask. You said temporary construction signs do not have to
have the permits affixed to the signs. This Enrique Norten fellow is a famous architect. I saw his
image on the shell around the huge Jorge Perez ONE OCEAN project at the official address of 1
Collins Avenue, across from Nikki Beach.

Enrique Norten (L) Luis Revuelta (R) Project Advocate Frank Del Vechhio looking over his shoulder
Well, Enrique Norten is becoming famous down here with the media hype pumping him up into
a Starchitect, but he is not an architect in Florida and cannot call himself one because he is not
licensed by the state. He cannot even call himself an unlicensed architect because he is not
allowed to associate the term architect with his name when advertising himself. He is
apparently the master architect on the project at 321 Ocean Drive. His architectural assistant,
James W. Carse, came down from the Manhattan office and registered as a lobbyist with the
city. It is common knowledge that New Yorkers considered Floridians to be stupid, and may
therefore prefer to bring in New York professionals on their projects. Luis Revuelta is the
Florida-licensed architect on record, and he is subject to stringent rules governing his oversight
of non-architects; he is not supposed to just stamp the plans for a fee.
As for the sign, it is a real estate sign bearing the name of the project, 321 OCEAN ENRIQUE
NORTEN SOUTH BEACH. Of course it implies that the project architect is Enrique Norten. We
see nothing fabulous in the design. We do not need a New York/Mexican architectural firm to
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qualify Miami as a world-class city; we have our own Starchitects. 321 OCEAN
ARQUITECTONICA has an exotic ring to it. Why not 321 OCEAN LUIS REVUELTA?
Next: Franks Folly