Surfside Mayor's Dubai Meeting With Developer Of Fatal Collapse Site Draws Rebuke From Commissioners

The Surfside Town Commission devolved into bickering and infighting Tuesday night as a commissioner tried to compel Mayor Shlomo Danzinger to turn over records related to an October 2022 trip to Dubai, where he met with the developer that purchased the site of the deadly Champlain Towers South collapse.

“The trip to Dubai to meet a billionaire developer was not a casual encounter,“  Commissioner Marianne Meischeid said during the sixth hour of the commission meeting Tuesday night.

She closed her comments by saying that “the public deserves the right to know the details after one year” before asking the mayor, “What are you hiding?” 

Dubai-based developer Damac International paid $120M in July 2022 to acquire the site at 8777 Collins Ave., where the tower collapsed a year earlier, killing 98 people. In October, three months after the sale, Danzinger met with Hussain Sajwani, the billionaire head of Damac, in Dubai. The mayor never disclosed the trip to Surfside officials, and it was first revealed by the Miami Herald last January. 

Danzinger defended himself and the trip Tuesday night. He outlined his administration’s efforts to form a committee made up of the family and friends of the victims of the tower collapse, his central role in planning memorial events for the first anniversary of the tragedy and his efforts to plan a permanent memorial for the victims. 

Meischeid, who brought the resolution to compel Danzinger to furnish the records, said in a phone interview Wednesday morning that Danzinger has failed to hand over any records related to the trip. 

The resolution sought to compel the mayor to hand over all public records related to the trip and said that the mayor “has not honored” several public records requests from media outlets and Surfside residents about the trip. 

“The specific information the Commissioner currently is seeking pertains to personal expenditures, a category that falls outside the scope of public records requirements,” Danzinger wrote in an email to Bisnow Wednesday night. “It is unfortunate, that my political opponents are exploiting the tragedy of the Surfside Champlain Towers Collapse for campaign purposes.”

At the meeting, the mayor reiterated comments he made to the Herald when the trip was first reported — that the visit to Dubai was made during a personal trip while he was on his way to Israel to visit his son, a trip he said had been planned for over a year before he came into office. 

Danzinger took the meeting in an effort to persuade Sajwani to allow banners with the names of the victims to remain on the site for as long as possible and to lobby Damac to set aside a portion of the site for a memorial, he said. 

In a phone call Wednesday night, Danzinger said he paid for all aspects of the Dubai leg of the trip and received no gifts or commitments from Sajwani that would have required public disclosure. 

“If Surfside wants to pay for my flights and hotel in Dubai, I’m happy to provide receipts,” he said, adding that he did hand over documents related to public business he conducted with Israeli officials about a sister city agreement.

Danzinger offered to vote in favor of the resolution Tuesday night if it was amended to only compel him to hand over records included in Florida Statute 119, a state law governing public records, which Meischeid declined to do. Tying her resolution to the state statute would likely limit the disclosure, Meischeid told Bisnow Wednesday. 

The resolution failed by a 3-2 vote. Danzinger was joined by Vice Mayor Jeffrey Rose and Commissioner Fred Landsman in voting against the resolution. Commissioner Nelly Velasquez provided the second vote in favor.  

“I don’t understand what’s so secretive about this,” Velasquez said at the meeting.

“Everybody knows you went there. Everybody knows you traveled there. You were on a camel with Ben over [there]. Why can’t you provide the receipts of who paid for this trip?” she asked, referencing Ben Jacobson, a member of the Surfside Tourist Board, who also made the trip.  

The mayor said he had already complied with records requests and accused Meischeid of engaging in a political stunt ahead of the town's March 19 election. Danzinger is running for reelection, while Meischeid is the only town commissioner opting not to run to retain her seat. 

Rose went further, accusing Meischeid of bringing the resolution on behalf of a local lobbyist opposed to Danzinger, kicking off a heated exchange where the two commissioners spoke over each other. 

The town attorney, Lillian Arango, was asked to weigh in on a point of order during the exchange.

“It’s impossible to transact business, to listen, to give advice under these circumstances,” Arango replied.

The redevelopment of the Champlain Towers South site has been a contentious issue in the town for years. Family and friends of collapse victims pushed for a memorial to be built on a portion of the site, but Damac ultimately opted not to include a memorial when it announced a plan in June to build a 12-story condo building designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning architecture firm Zaha Hadid Architects. 

Protesters picketed outside of the September commission meeting where Damac ultimately won approval for its project, with Danzinger, Rose and Landsman forming the 3-2 bloc that pushed the project forward. 

Meischeid on Wednesday accused Danziger of reversing course about rules governing the development’s setback from the street. She said he told the committee representing the victims in September 2022 that zoning rules required a 20-foot setback, or 10% of the building's 200-foot frontage. But after returning from Dubai, the rules were reinterpreted to allow the property to move ahead with a 10-foot setback, she said. 

Danzinger told Bisnow Wednesday night that those setback distances were discussed before a site plan had been submitted. Damac was able to reduce the overall setback because the plan that was ultimately approved included an inclined, tiered design as opposed to entirely vertical frontage, he added.

He disputed Meischeid’s representation that the rules were reinterpreted after the fact and said the city attorney and city planner both signed off on the project without requiring any additional variances. 

There will be one more town commission meeting before Election Day, and Meischeid told Bisnow she is weighing bringing forward another resolution to try to force the mayor to hand over records. 

Danziger predicted she would do as much at the end of the meeting.

“Thank you, I expect to see something on the next agenda, right before an election,” he told the commission after the vote.

UPDATE, FEB. 14, 6:55 P.M. ET: This story has been updated to include comments from an interview with Surfside Mayor Shlomo Danzinger.

CORRECTION, FEB. 14, 6:55 P.M. ET: A previous version of this story misidentified the current Surfside town attorney. This story has been updated.