By Jane Feehan
Residential high rises rule Fort Lauderdale’s skyline these days. For some it’s hard to remember what the city looked like before them. Rental apartments and cooperatives--or co-ops – were the beginning of the skyward push.
According to the Fort Lauderdale News, the first two high-rise buildings in town were built by Col. T.J. Murrell during 1956-1957 and opened in 1958: Spring Tide at 345 N. Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard and Sea Tower (soon after a co-op) at 2840 N. Atlantic Blvd. Birch Towers at 3003 Terramar went up in 1958. The skyward push included 23 high rises constructed between 1956 and 1965. Several were converted to condos or co-ops over the years.
Among the first co-ops was the Edgewater Arms* on the Galt Mile, with ground broken in late 1959 (88 units). Another, the Breakwater Towers, near Port Everglades offered units for sale in 1960 (and was completed around 1962). This 16-story co-op was once the largest residential building in Broward County. It couldn’t make that claim for long. The first Coral Ridge Towers, a co-op across from the Galt Mile opened with 330 units in 1963 (my family among its first residents). The Illini, a co-op at 535 S. Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd. with 52 units was ready for occupancy in late 1962.
The first high-rise condominium in Fort Lauderdale was Sky Harbor East, announced in 1963 and completed in 1964 (as were a few other projects those early years, so the claim of first may be first announced or first completed or written up as such by the New York Times and local media). A few blocks from the Breakwater on South Ocean Drive, Sky Harbor East also reaches 16 floors, and holds about 186 units.
The first high-rise condominium in Fort Lauderdale was Sky Harbor East, announced in 1963 and completed in 1964 (as were a few other projects those early years, so the claim of first may be first announced or first completed or written up as such by the New York Times and local media). A few blocks from the Breakwater on South Ocean Drive, Sky Harbor East also reaches 16 floors, and holds about 186 units.
The Four Seasons off Las Olas at 333 Sunset was built as a co-op in 1958-1959 but was purchased after lengthy litigation by Tennessee oil man Calvin Houghland. He converted the building into rental units in 1963.
In 1963, condos at Sky Harbor were going for $14,900 to $29,430. Today the same units (956 -1,474-sf) ) sell $500,000 to $700,000 and up. South Ocean Drive is still one of the most beautiful parts of the city. The two Points of America buildings there overlook the harbor entrance. The widow of Jackie Gleason, Marilyn Taylor, once lived in Points of America II. After her death in 2019, her two-bedroom penthouse condo was listed for $1.165 million (July, 2020).
And so it went from the late 1950s and 1960s, condominiums reaching for the clouds, from Port Everglades to Las Olas and northward to Galt Ocean Mile. Only Lauderdale-by-the-Sea pushes back with its height limits for new construction … for now.
Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Broward County history, Fort Lauderdale condos, aerial view of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale development
In 1963, condos at Sky Harbor were going for $14,900 to $29,430. Today the same units (956 -1,474-sf) ) sell $500,000 to $700,000 and up. South Ocean Drive is still one of the most beautiful parts of the city. The two Points of America buildings there overlook the harbor entrance. The widow of Jackie Gleason, Marilyn Taylor, once lived in Points of America II. After her death in 2019, her two-bedroom penthouse condo was listed for $1.165 million (July, 2020).
And so it went from the late 1950s and 1960s, condominiums reaching for the clouds, from Port Everglades to Las Olas and northward to Galt Ocean Mile. Only Lauderdale-by-the-Sea pushes back with its height limits for new construction … for now.
* Plans for the Ocean Manor Hotel also on the Galt Mile, indicated co-op units would be included, but when it opened in 1958, it was announced by the Fort Lauderdale News that the building held 114 hotel rooms and suites and 84 efficiencies and apartments, no mention of co-op but it may have been one.
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| Downtown Fort Lauderdale 2023, the new construction frontier |
Copyright © 2020, 2023. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.
Sources:
New York Times, Jan. 12, 1958
Fort Lauderdale News, Dec. 20, 1958
Fort Lauderdale News June 10, 1962
Fort Lauderdale News, Sept 15, 1962
Miami News, Feb. 13, l963
Fort Lauderdale News, May 16, 1965
Sun-Sentinel, July 9, 2020
Gillis, Susan. Fort Lauderdale, The Venice of America. Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2004
Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Broward County history, Fort Lauderdale condos, aerial view of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale development
