Building boom, younger residents give Sunny Isles Beach a new look

Nov 14, 2008 (The Miami Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- TWBC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- As the sun begins to set over Collins Avenue, Town Center Park is bustling with children, soaking up the last rays of the afternoon.

Across the street, hip couples and young families stroll the aisles of the Epicure Gourmet Market, picking up veal shanks for osso bucco and French cheeses in what used to be the site of a beloved Jewish eatery.

Less than a decade ago such a scene would be hard to imagine in Sunny Isles Beach -- known mostly for its quaint oceanfront motels and retirees.

But a building boom in recent years has ushered in a dozen or so high-rise condo-hotels sprouting along the coast.

An influx of younger, more affluent residents -- and their children -- moved in to fill the roughly 5,000 new units.

"When we first came down here, there was no one. Now, it's exploded," said Laura Taranto, a New York transplant. "In the last seven years, it's become so family-oriented. There are kids everywhere."

Taranto and husband Dale, parents of twin boys, moved out of their home in North Miami Beach's Eastern Shores in September and into a condo at the Porto Bellagio. They wanted their sons to start sixth grade at Sunny Isles Beach Community School, the first public school within city limits that opened earlier this year.

City officials estimate the population is somewhere between 18,000 and 20,000 compared to the 15,000 listed in the 2000 census and substantially more than the nearly 12,000 people living there when the city was incorporated in 1997.

In response, city leaders have made it a point to make Sunny Isles Beach more family-friendly.

There are six parks within the city's 2 1/2-square-mile radius and two more on the way. Enrollment at the Sunny Isles Beach Community School, which topped 1,150 in its inaugural year, surprised even the school principal.

"We expected to have 800 because we just didn't think there were that many children," Principal Annette Weissman said.

Not everyone is happy with the changing face of Sunny Isles Beach.

Old-timer Mike Barretta, 64, has divided his time between his native Germany and the Arlen House condos since 1978.

While he said he still loves the city, especially new parks where he now brings his young son, he laments the pumped-up skyline.

"For me, the old motels were nice. They should leave some of the old buildings," Barretta said, while keeping an eye on Mike Jr., 3, who was playing on a swing at Town Center Park.

"But, like everything, there is change," he said, shaking his head.

Even the tourists, long a fixture in Sunny Isles Beach, have changed.

"We are a totally new destination now, with the new luxury products that we have," said Ibis Romero, director of the Sunny Isles Beach Resort Association, which promotes newer buildings like the Acqualina, Le Meridian and the just-completed Jade Ocean.

"We have these condo-hotels, these beautiful parks. It's really attracting the families, the younger families. Not just the honeymooners."

The city remains popular with Russian natives, including Irina Allegrova, a Russian pop singer who bought a two-bedroom condo for $1.4 million this year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

She joined other high-profile newcomers.

In 2006, Terrell Owens, a wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys, bought a place at the Trump Palace condo. Star slugger Sammy Sosa also purchased an 11,500-square-foot penthouse in the Acqualina.

The new skyline was part of the city's grand plan, Mayor Norman Edelcup said.

"The motel area got really seedy, run down. We got together, hired an attorney and filed a petition," said Edelcup, who helped organize the incorporation effort.

The first order of business for the new city: changing the zoning to permit the high-rise development in order to "prime the pump for a new rebuilding era," Edelcup said.

For the most part, it has worked.

Last month, Epicure Gourmet Market opened its doors at Collins Avenue and 173rd Street, where, for decades, Wolfie Cohen's Rascal House drew lines around the block from locals clamoring for traditional comfort food like corned-beef sandwiches.

Initially slated as a 15-story mixed-use project, with Epicure on the bottom floor, plans were scaled back -- at least temporarily -- in response to the housing market crash.

Jason Starkman, whose family bought the Rascal House in 1996, said the new gourmet restaurant -- aisles stocked with prepackaged soups, ready-to-go-meals and a decadent array of cakes and pastries -- is more in tune with the surrounding area.

"I believe the way this neighborhood developed, it became, I think the term is dinosaur," Starkman said, describing the landmark Rascal House. "We're more ethnic, more Russians, more Europeans, South Americans. It's really come down in age."

Edelcup, though, said he wasn't that surprised.

"My joke is that as the city gets older, it gets younger," he said.

But despite the changing times, nods to tradition remain.

At Epicure, shoppers can sip mojitos as they peruse the aisles that still stock matzoh ball soup and gefilte fish alongside the lobster bisque.

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