The Savoy Hotel on Miami Beach’s iconic Ocean Drive is an emblem of the historic style that’s long characterized the island city: a low-rise footprint with Art Deco design that’s stood since the 1930s.
But that historic property is now set for potential demolition to make way for a 38-story condo building — and while residents are up in arms about the plan, the city says it can’t do anything to stop it thanks to preemption laws passed in Tallahassee.
If the demolition of the Savoy moves forward, it’ll be thanks to The Resiliency and Safe Structures Act, a state law passed in 2024. The law is meant to preserve safety in areas prone to floods, and allows recognized historic properties to be demolished if they do not meet certain flood criteria set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Almost the entirety of Miami Beach is in a floodzone, according to FEMA flood maps.
And thanks to another recent state law — the Live Local Act — developers would be able to sidestep local zoning regulations, allowing for a project that would smash height restrictions to tower above all surrounding buildings.
The bill
The bill was sponsored by Republican State Sen. Bryan Avila, who was recently selected by Republican gubernatorial nominee Byron Donalds as a candidate for Lieutenant Governor. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law.
During a 2024 committee hearing, after Miami Beach residents and groups spoke in strong opposition to his bill, Avila quipped: "It's safe to say I might not be able to have coffee at Miami Beach anytime soon."
The Miami Design Preservation League, a Miami Beach-based nonprofit, published a blog post in 2024 specifically warning that Avila’s bill could lead to the demolition of the Savoy Hotel and other historic properties.
"This is something that was not only predictable, but was predicted, in fact, by the Miami Design Preservation League,” Meg Lousteau, the executive director of the League, told WLRN.
READ MORE: New 'bulldozing' bill threatens South Beach's Art Deco soul, city leaders say
The hotel is made up of two structures, both impacted by the potential demolition: the Savoy, built in 1937, will be partly preserved under the new plans; and the Arlington, built in 1941, would be completely demolished.
Avila’s law bans local governments in coastal communities from preventing the demolition of many historic structures if they are “nonconforming” to modern flood standards, or if that building has been deemed unsafe. The measure also prevented local governments from requiring the “preservation of any elements of a demolished structure.”
Residents and local elected officials warned that the bill could severely impact Miami Beach and other coastal communities when the bill was first introduced in 2023. Buildings that are only a few decades old do not meet current flood standards, and the entire city of Miami Beach falls under the purview of the law.
Avila, who represented Hialeah in the Florida Senate, drew widespread criticism for first introducing the bill in 2023 when his district was nowhere near the water and nowhere near the impacts of the proposed law.
"I love Hialeah, but Hialeah isn’t known for its architecture except for the race track," Ileana Oroza, a Miami Beach resident told WLRN during a street protest in 2023. "And it’s a Hialeah senator that wants to take all this away? It’s just wrong."
Miami Beach commissioner Alex Fernandez also took part in that 2023 protest, and took a stab at Avila during a speech that drew applause from the crowd: "History is rich and alive in Miami Beach. So the message is clear today to Tallahassee: Stick to your district. Stick to Hialeah. Stick to Miami Springs. Leave Miami Beach alone!"
The community activism succeeded in blocking the passage of the bill in 2023. But the following year Avila filed it again the following year, this time successfully.
Commissioner Fernandez told WLRN he hates to say it, but he was right in his opposition of Avila’s bill at the time.
“It's the fulfillment of the prophecy pretty much,” said Fernandez. “Everything that they said wouldn't happen is exactly what is happening with this extremely irresponsible preemption, yet again, of local government.”
A request for comment from the Byron Donalds and Avila campaign was not returned.
Miami Beach’s Republican State Rep. Fabian Basabe joined the mostly Democratic opposition to the bill in the Florida House and voted against it. In the Florida Senate, Democratic State Senator Shevrin Jones, whose district included parts of Miami Beach, voted against it. Republican Senator Ileana Garcia, who represents South Beach, voted for the bill.
The condo
The proposed building planned by Allied Partners and designed by Arquitectonica, would include a hotel co-existing with 90 condos and 60 so-called workforce rental units on Ocean Drive and 4th Street.
While the potential demolition could happen due to Avila’s bill, the plans to build the 38-story building, first reported by the outlet Floridian Developer, are made possible by the Live Local Act, a law passed in 2023 that allows developers to sidestep many local zoning regulations when trying to build large structures.
The law allows large-scale construction in low-scale zones so long as at least 40% of units in the building are maintained as “workforce housing” for at least 30 years. Workforce housing is meant to cater to working class households making a certain amount above the median income in their area, but has been criticized for not actually being affordable for the average worker.
The Floridian Developer cited a letter of intent for the demolition of the Savoy Hotel sent to Miami Beach officials in April of 2026. The letter said that the hotel is “currently cordoned off by construction fencing and stabilized through shoring, has been closed to the public since it was badly damaged in Hurricane Irma,” and that “due to its current state, in accordance with the Resiliency and Safe Structures Act, and as allowed by the Live Local Act itself, the Arlington structure will not be preserved in the project.”
Avila’s demolition bill has an exception for historic properties that sit within a historic district recognized by the National Register of Historic Places before January 1, 2000. The Savoy Hotel sits in the South of Fifth neighborhood in Miami Beach, just outside the Miami Beach Architectural District, which was listed in the registry in 1979.
"This is a horrible state preemption on Miami Beach, on every coastal community in Florida. Our hands have been tied.”Commissioner Alex Fernandez
“ Really anything in the South of Fifth neighborhood of Miami Beach is a potential target, and we may lose any number of historic buildings for this reason alone,” warned Lousteau of the Design Preservation League.
She said that the “combination” of Avila’s law and the Live Local Act, which passed unanimously in the Florida Senate, could lead to a wholesale change of how many parts of Miami Beach feel on the street level. Further, she said, since the city is banned from preventing the demolition, there is virtually nothing residents can do about it.
“ Not only would this be damaging to the iconic brand and image of our city all over the world, but it also removes local participation from these kinds of decisions, and that is an ongoing problem that doesn't just affect Miami Beach, but affects pretty much every coastal community,” said Lousteau.
The communities of St. Augustine, Key West, Palm Beach, Tampa, Pensacola, West Palm Beach and Panama City have been largely exempted from the law.
In remarks he made in the Florida Senate, Avila was unmoved by advocates’ warnings about what the bill could do to areas like South Beach, as WLRN reported at the time.
"We're certainly very appreciative of our history and historical structures, but not all these structures have a historical significance," he said, a reference to the hundreds of Art Deco and Miami Modern buildings in Miami Beach.
"Structures like the Château de Saint-Cloud, Versailles, or Buckingham Palace — you can go down the line. Or whether it’s Machu Picchu," Avila said. "History should certainly be preserved. Now with saying that, there are some structures that are simply not historical."
Miami Beach commissioner Fernandez said he is very worried about the future of historic preservation efforts in Miami Beach under Avila’s law.
“The city has been stripped of its authority to stop the demolition of historic properties like like the Savoy and Arlington. This is a horrible state preemption on Miami Beach, on every coastal community in Florida,” Fernandez said. “We still are trying to use whatever very limited authority we have to review the plans, but that is a diluted authority. Our hands have been tied.”
