The towing dispute between Tremont Towing and Beach Towing in Miami Beach has escalated with a $3 million lawsuit. A company affiliated with Tremont Towing, 1747 Bay Road Properties, alleges that Beach Towing abused government processes and interfered with their business in order to gain a larger share of the city's towing contracts. Beach Towing denies the claims and says they were merely forcing the city to follow its own laws. The lawsuit is the latest development in an eight-month dispute over approvals for Tremont Towing to renovate a new headquarters.

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THE MIAMI HERALD | MiamiHerald.com NE SUNDAY, JUNE 19, 2011 | 3NE
Miami Beach’s towing
feud has moved from city
hall to circuit court.
Earlier this month, 1747
Bay Road Properties —
comprisedofagroupofTre-
mont Towing stakeholders
— filed a $3 million lawsuit
against competitor Beach
Towing, saying the compa-
ny and its representatives
have conspired to damage
their Miami Beach business.
The complaint, filed June
7 by David Nevel, an attor-
ney for both Tremont Tow-
ing and 1747 Bay Road Prop-
erties, alleges that Beach
Towing:
● Abused government
process by filing five ap-
peals with the city begin-
ning in September to keep
Tremont from receiving the
necessary approval to move
from its former lot — from
which it was evicted — to a
new, renovated headquar-
ters at 1747 Bay Road.
● Interfered with Tre-
mont’s business in order to
seize a larger share of the ci-
ty’s public towing business.
● Conspired with lobby-
ists and an unnamed city
commissioner to delay the
renovation of the 1747 Bay
Road building and effective-
ly downsize Tremont’s Mi-
ami Beach business to
roughly one-third its former
capacity.
Allan S. Reiss, attorney
for Beach Towing, said his
client was merely forcing
the city of Miami Beach to
follow its own laws.
“We believe the lawsuit is
entirely without merit,” he
wrote in a statement faxed
to the Herald.
Nevel wrote that Beach
Towing has cost 1747 Bay
Road Properties roughly $3
million in mortgage pay-
ments, taxes, loss of income,
legal fees and other expens-
es, and demanded
repayment.
Nevel declined to name
the elected official allegedly
conspiring with Beach Tow-
ing. The lawsuit comes after
eight months of public snip-
ing that began when a group
of Tremont investors head-
lined by developers Russell
Galbut and Keith Menin
purchased a Sunset Har-
bour property they hoped to
renovate and turn into Tre-
mont’s new headquarters.
In response, Beach Tow-
ing fired off a slew of ap-
peals that so far, has kept
Galbut and Menin from re-
ceiving the necessary ap-
provals to renovate their
proposed new tow lot and
effectively forced Tremont
Towing into a much smaller
facility with only 31 spaces.
In May, commissioners
voted to allow Tremont to
continue towing cars for the
city, but said Beach Towing
would be called for all pub-
lic tows once Tremont’s lot
filled up — although the city
allowed Tremont Towing to
store cars at the Miami
Beach Convention Center
during the very busy towing
period that is Memorial Day
weekend.
In the complaint, Nevel
also named members of the
Festa family, which owns
Beach Towing, and compa-
ny attorney Ralph Andrade
as co-defendants.
Meanwhile, the city con-
tinues to consider taking ov-
er public towing storage al-
together by building a ware-
house on Terminal Island.
Administrators say about
$1.5 million could buy the ci-
ty the capacity to hold be-
tween 60 and 80 vehicles,
though doing so would
mean funneling tow trucks
back and forth through the
already failing intersection
of Alton Road and Fifth
Street.
MIAMI BEACH
Stakes in towing dispute hit $3 million
■ The dispute between
towing companies
heats up as a company
affiliated with Tremont
Towing files suit against
the owners of Beach
Towing.
BY DAVID SMILEY
dsmiley@MiamiHerald.com
After a two-year back-
and-forth between the city
of Miami and the Bacardi
company, the city has re-
moved a hurdle that might
have complicated the rum-
maker’s hopes of redevelop-
ing land beside its historic
former headquarters on Bis-
cayne Boulevard.
The city of Miami and Ba-
cardi came to an agreement
onMay26regardingthecom-
pany’s appeal to remove the
historic designation on a
1,200-square-foot slice of its
property in the Edgewater
neighborhood.
While the 8-story struc-
ture,theAnnexbuildingand
the raised plaza will keep
their statusashistoricbuild-
ings, the remainder of the
land at 2100 Biscayne Blvd.
will not, according to His-
toric and Environmental
Preservation Board Officer
Alexander Adams.
Bacardi had asked for the
preservation board’s designa-
tion to be reversed, but the ci-
ty denied its appeal and in-
stead chose to modify the
original designation to in-
clude a new condition: The
rum company must maintain
a visibility corridor from the
corner of Biscayne Boulevard
sothattheartworkontheside
of one of the buildings can be
seen from the street.
“These buildings were
part of the culture of Miami.
It’s a homegrown company;
they are also architecturally
significant for the period of
time,” Adams said.
With this decision, Bacar-
di will not have to seek ap-
proval from the preserva-
tion board for future rede-
velopment on the rest of the
block, much of which is
owned by the company.
Bacardi moved its U.S.
headquarters to Coral Ga-
bles in 2007 to accommo-
date more employees, but
the company still owns the
land off Biscayne, though it
is not using it and the build-
ings are now vacant.
However, Patricia M.
Neal, spokeswoman for Ba-
cardi, reaffirmed the com-
pany’s commitment to pre-
serving the buildings.
"We are proud of the
buildings and their histori-
cal designation,” Neal said,
“and even have agreed to
preserve a view corridor on
our property just to the
north so no future construc-
tion would block the view of
the blue and white building
for the southbound traffic
on Biscayne Boulevard."
In 2009, the property had
been designated as historic
by the Historic and Environ-
mental Preservation Board.
The decision guarantees the
buildings will not be altered
ordemolishedbytheowner.
The eight-story building
called “The Tower” was
built in 1963 and features a
blue-and-white tile mosaic
of tropical plants and ani-
mals designed by Brazilian
artistFranciscoBrennand.It
housed office space and the
Bacardi Museum, which has
also been moved to Coral
Gables. The highest floor
accommodated a dining
room and corporate bar.
The adjacent two-story
building, “The Annex,” was
built ten years later and fea-
tures stained glass works
designed by French artists
Gabriel and Jacques Loire.
The geometric structures
are examples of Internation-
al Style modernist architec-
ture and relate to Latin
American modernist archi-
tecture in their use of mate-
rials and in their style.
Originally a Cuban com-
pany, Bacardi came to the
United States in the early
1960s when the Cuban gov-
ernment seized its assets,
estimated to be worth more
than $76 million.
Bacardi spokeswoman
Amy Federman said the
company has “no plans to
build anything” on the for-
merly designated historic
chunk of land for now.
UPPER EASTSIDE
Bacardi agrees to preserve street view
■ Bacardi has agreed to
not block the view of its
historic buildings from
Biscayne Boulevard if it
develops adjacent land
in the future.
BY SERGIO N. CANDIDO
sergio@OpenMediaMiami.com
About this
story
This report was produced
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THE ANNEX’: This two-story building was built in 1973
with stained-glass works designed by French
artists Gabriel and Jacques Loire
JARED LAZARUS/MIAMI HERALD FILE, 2005