Palm Beach in uproar as invading 'new money' transplants clash with old guard retirees and snowbirds over first luxury new condos in decades

Longtime Palm Beach residents are fighting to preserve the island's little remaining middle to upper middle class character as rich developers seek to tear down the current standings to build luxury condos.

At the center of the feud between locals and developers is the Ambassador Hotel. Cain International and OKO Group bought the Ambassador and an apartment building across the street for $147 million in 2022 with the intent to demolish the hotel.

Their plan is to replace dated building with 'the most ultra-luxury multifamily project likely that the town will ever see,' Bloomberg reported.  

The three-star Ambassador is already besieged by condos to its north, south and west, and residents feel that a new building that exclusively caters to the uber-wealthy is unwarranted. 

Complaints have been filed about what the developers wanted to do with the property in an attempt to grind the process to a halt. 

The Ambassador Hotel, a three-star property in Palm Beach that was bought by two developers in 2022. They plan to demolish the Ambassador outfit the new luxury multifamily complex with rooftop decks, fountains and at least 10 swimming pools

An aerial view of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate is seen Aug. 10, 2022, in Palm Beach, Florida

Billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones' sprawling $71 million estate in Palm Beach

The coast of Palm Beach, Florida in May 2021

And residents have Palm Beach's strict building codes on their side, which locals are unsurprisingly against loosening.

Cain and OKO Group initially planned three buildings to replace the Ambassador, each of which would be five stories high. They failed to change the pesky zoning laws though, and now they're altering their blueprint and asking the Palm Beach Town Council for individual exceptions. 

The homeowner's association next door to the Ambassador is against the increased square footage and the 'intensity' of the proposals by Cain and OKO Group. The new property would have rooftop decks, fountains and at least 10 swimming pools, according to renderings.

Bobbie Lindsay, the town council president, said most people who actually live in the area 'could never afford to buy a unit like this, not even remotely,' adding that the developers should engage with the community more.

Though, its not clear that the community would support anything Cain and OKO want to do.

Aerial footage of Downtown West Palm Beach in May 2021. Its an area that one Palm Beach resident said he doesn't want his more low-key community to transform into as new money developers descend onto prime beachfront real estate

The Flagler Museum, also known as Whitehall a 75-room mansion, built by Henry Flagler as a wedding present for his wife, Mary Lily Kenan Flagler, completed in 1902 on Friday, Sept. 25, 2020 in Palm Beach

A 1984 picture of a pool area adjacent to a magnificent Palm Beach mansion

Palm trees stand on the grounds of a mansion designed by architect Addison Mizner in Palm Beach

At a recent town meeting, an apartment owner nearby said he and others 'don’t want to become West Palm Beach,' which in recent years has been transformed into a glittering row of skyscrapers, complete with sleek office buildings and luxury condo complexes. 

Of course, Palm Beach itself is already filled with obvious signs of wealth and excess, with superyachts parked in the marina and the streets being clogged with Lamborghinis and Rolls Royces. Plus, Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort is there, along with billionaire Paul Tudor Jones' giant $71 million mansion. 

Another resident at the meeting took issue with the proposed rooftop pools, saying she didn't want to see 'dancing girls on bars'. 

Paul Holland, who has owned a condo next door to the Ambassador for 15 years and mostly supports the new project, gave a frank assessment of how locals think and how if the developers want to be successful, they might just have to steamroll residents' concerns.

'Getting things through the pipeline here - you're going to have lots of people who will argue with you about everything,' Holland told Bloomberg. 'The Ambassador is not an attractive place, so it can only get better.'

Holland still noted that if his neighborhood were to ever become a haven for billionaires, he'd 'have to move out'. 

Bloomberg reports that developers, although they're getting a lot of upfront resistance, may eventually win in the end by simply playing the waiting game.

Picture of the Champlain Towers in Surfside, Florida. The south building collapsed in seconds, killing 98 people 

The disaster prompted Florida's legislature to pass a law requiring all condos that are older than 30 years and have more than three stories to undergo assessments. In Palm Beach, these assessements could force current condo owners to do costly repairs, making them more likely to sell to big time developers with deep pockets

That's because all 30-year-old plus Florida condo buildings with more than three stories are facing mandatory assessments at the end of the year that more than likely will force the owners to do expensive repairs. 

The devastating 2021 Surfside condo collapse in Miami, which killed 98 people, prompted the Florida state legislature to pass a law mandating these assessments of older buildings. 

A member of the Citizens’ Association of Palm Beach told Bloomberg there are at least five buildings in the area that are negotiating with developers over buyout deals to avoid being on the hook for the impending assessments. 

The Ambassador, for example, was built in 1947, and the all the buildings around it are at least 30 years old with most of them being much older. 

'The world is different in the post-Surfside world,' said Harvey Oyer, the lawyer representing the Ambassador developers, during a public meeting.

'There’s also the fact that we’re at the greatest demand for waterfront real estate in the history of Florida in this post-Covid real estate boom.'