FORT LAUDERDALE — The lights on the Las Olas Parking Garage went dark a year ago.
And replacing them — should the commission give the project a green light — won’t be cheap or quick.
New lights would cost an estimated $3 million, not $2 million as commissioners were initially told. The project would have to be put out to bid and the old lights taken down before the new can be installed.
Altogether, it could take anywhere from 12 to 18 months before the once glitzy garage at 200 E. Las Olas Circle can again bedazzle the beach.
Commissioner Steve Glassman, whose district includes the beach, says he wants the lights fixed even if he has to find private donors to foot the bill.
Commissioners Warren Sturman, John Herbst and Pamela Beasley-Pittman have argued against spending millions to light up a garage, even one with a Las Olas address so close to the beach.
“Three million dollars to me is an awful lot of money,” Sturman said during a recent meeting.
Mayor Dean Trantalis suggested putting the lighting project on pause.
Glassman was quick to object.
“I don’t want to put this on pause,” Glassman said. “This is a very iconic building that was built with both CRA money and parking money. Part of the promise to the neighborhood and to the city at the time was that they would have a garage on this site that was also pretty much a piece of public art. The neighbors really want this garage to function in the way they were promised.”
Fort Lauderdale does not leave things broken, Glassman argued.
“I can’t imagine that in any other district in the city of Fort Lauderdale that if something broke, we would just say, ‘Eh, no need to take any action. We’re going to let this slide. It’s OK, there’s no rush here.’
“I had someone say to me just the other day, ‘Well gee, why did we have to fix that sinkhole at Bayview and Commercial?” Glassman said. “’Just leave the hole there and let people drive around the hole.’ Would we ever think of doing something like that? No. Great cities repair things.”
Beacon to the beach
Jo Ann Medalie, who passes the garage on her beach walks, says there’s no question in her mind. She wants to see the lights shine again.
“This is not some old, junky building,” she wrote in an email to the commission. “The garage just opened in 2018. This project was promoted to us (as) a beacon to the beach, with light programs changing with seasons and holidays. And oh, it was grand when it lasted.”
Medalie says the garage is now a total eyesore sitting on precious public land.
“It is absolutely your responsibility to resolve this impasse,” she told the commission. “You have spent untold dollars on LOOP (Las Olas Oceanside Park) with this behemoth garage lurking in the background like a deserted castoff structure. Putting us off is not good enough. We are not going away.”
In November, commissioners asked staff to look into what lights were used on the guitar-shaped hotel at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood.
SACO Technologies, based in Quebec, provided the LED video lighting for the Hard Rock hotel, commissioners learned during a recent meeting.
The same company also lit up the Burj Kahlifa skyscraper in Dubai, the world’s tallest building; the Sphere arena in Las Vegas; and the TQL soccer stadium in Cincinnati.
If SACO Technologies were tasked with lighting up the garage, the lighting technology alone would cost $2 million. Fort Lauderdale would have to put another $1 million toward the installation.
Waste of money?
Herbst isn’t convinced the garage lights need replacing.
“One of the problems we had with the original lighting besides its failure was that it was obsolete by the time we installed it,” he said. “What guarantees do we have that the lighting is not going to be technologically obsolete within the next five years and that we’re not going to be having to do this again?”
Ben Rogers, director of the city’s Transportation and Mobility Department, said the new lights would require regular software upgrades.
Beasley-Pittman wondered whether the new lights would withstand the salt air, being so close to the ocean.
Rogers said they would.
“We have something that’s not working,” Beasley-Pittman said. “The dollar amount we’re looking to pour into this again, I’m not sure if I’m comfortable with that.”
Beasley-Pittman suggested the city find another way to beautify the garage.
“Does it have to be lights?” Sturman asked. “Maybe something other than lights might be a better fit.”
A spray of paint simply won’t do, said Bill Brown, president of the Central Beach Alliance neighborhood association.
“This is just one jewel in the crown of that whole area,” Brown said. “The residents I don’t think will be happy to see something just painted on the concrete.”
The light shows on the garage are not just for the locals but for the tourists too, he argued.
“It’s not just the residents that get to enjoy it,” Brown said. “It’s all the tourists that ride up and down on the Water Taxi. It’s the five-star-hotel guests who come from around the world that walk down to that area and get to see it lit up. Please, let’s fix it.”
Susannah Bryan can be reached at . Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan
