Fort Lauderdale's Riverfront now a ghost town

FORT LAUDERDALE — Dan Marino's — gone. Ugly Tuna Saloona — gone. Ditto for Max's Grille, Johnny Rockets, Argenti Designer Jewelers and Vogue Italia.

Planned 12 years ago as a major entertainment destination for tourists and locals, the Las Olas Riverfront complex sits today as a ghost town along the city's New River. The movie theater remains, but most retail stores have closed and the dining options have dwindled.

Riverfront's business directory lists it as less than half full. And while water still flows from its signature courtyard fountain, its escalators don't move and are blocked off.



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Visitors pass shuttered store after shuttered store emblazoned with for-lease signs. The place picks up only late at night when its few nightclubs open.

Casey and Audrey Ahlbum, of Margate, were stunned last week when they came to Riverfront for the first time in a couple of years to take a sightseeing cruise. They hoped to shop and eat in the complex as they had done in the past.

"It's sad," Audrey Ahlbum said. "They should have left it as it was. It was such a great location and set-up, but now there's nothing."

Downtown leaders believe Riverfront will linger largely as it is today until the national economy recovers. Their hopes for a faster rebirth were dashed recently when a group of commercial real estate developers backed out of a deal to buy and restore the complex.

That was the latest setback for the beleaguered Riverfront.

Plans to tear it down and replace it with a hotel, high-rise condo tower and an office building fell through when the real estate market crashed. The complex was bought earlier this year at public auction by one of its lenders, an arm of Cerberus Capital Management in New York.

"Time will force a decision, but I don't know how much time that will be," said restaurateur Tim Petriello, a member of the Downtown Development Authority. "It's terrible because it is one of the nicest pieces of real estate in Fort Lauderdale and is so underutilized. Ultimately, I hope something happens sooner rather than later because what is happening right now does nothing for downtown."

The complex, located just off Las Olas Boulevard and Andrews Avenue, was heavily underwritten by tax money.

Taxpayers to both the Broward County School Board and the city of Fort Lauderdale lost more than $3 million in deals leading up to the 1998 development of Riverfront. Local government still has a stake in it because the site must remain a public entertainment zone until at least 2011 under the terms of the city's deal with the original developers.

The downfall of Riverfront has come despite the explosion of downtown residents as a result of the construction of thousands of nearby condos.

Downtown leaders believe the complex developed too young of a following as a result of its movie theater and bars and lost the higher-end customers that could sustain major restaurants and retail operations. They also contend the building was poorly designed for how downtown developed — largely blocking itself off as an island between the shops and restaurants along Las Olas and those in Himmarshee Village.

"It's kind of creepy," said Tracy Acton, of Fort Lauderdale, who took her two sons to see "Toy Story 3" at Riverfront last week. She said the original "bustling and wonderful" Riverfront was part of what attracted her family to Fort Lauderdale.

Merv Brody's Vogue Italia was one of Riverfront's original businesses, but he left 2 1/2 years ago.

"I didn't want to leave, but it just wasn't working," Brody said. "The location was right, but the caliber of people changed and the better places moved out."

Robbie Barnes, though, has faith that the complex will recover.

He recently moved his designer clothing store Street Couture from a warehouse studio in Deerfield Beach to Riverfront. He notes that he invested heavily in remodeling what once was a sandwich store and that a new restaurant and nightclub are soon to open.

Riverfront's continuing ill-health is drawing complaints from civic activists who argue the city must do something soon to rehabilitate a place that sits in the prime path along the river that runs from the Broward Center for the Performing Arts to Las Olas Boulevard.

"It's just critical that it be brought back because it is a pivotal piece of downtown," said former City Commissioner Tim Smith, who recently wrote about Riverfront's woes on his personal blog site. "The city needs to play hardball and force something to happen. It's the citizens' land, and someone needs to be a champion."

Mayor Jack Seiler agrees.

He would like the city to work with Riverfront's owners to bring about a redevelopment. He also wants more details on what happens legally next year when the entertainment zone requirement is set to end. He said Riverfront is a key part to building the walk along the New River into something more vibrant like that seen in San Antonio, Texas.

"The city started along the river and the river is our future," Seiler said. "You can't have such a large segment along the Riverwalk sitting vacant."