Streamline: The Back Story

March 30, 2015 - Many moons ago a young real estate lawyer named Saul Gross left his 9-to-5 perch on New York's Upper West Side, landed on the shores of Miami Beach and fell in love. Can one fall in love with a building...its curves, its fanciful facades, its vaulted ceilings and terrazzo floors, its pecky cypress beams hand-painted by Seminole Indians, its oolite fireplaces, Streamline deco lines and Mediterranean splendor? It happens. Yes, it was love at first sight for the 30-year-old pioneer who saw his future in saving art deco architectural gems.

The year was 1984. The first season of Crockett and Tubbs in Miami Vice. This place wasn't even called South Beach then; that's what the surfers who waited for waves by the 1st Street pier near the old Miami Beach Kennel Club used to call it. Today we call it SoBe, a hip moniker after Manhattan's downtown SoHo. Its southernmost tip is SoFi, south of 5th Street, where back in the day you could get chips and beer or cheap breakfast at the only dive on 2nd & Collins. Or, you could wait by the kitchen screen door at Joe's and order take-out cole slaw and stone crabs. Blue-haired ladies played bridge all day in Lummus Park on folding card tables. At night, they danced the polka. There was no such thing as valet parking back then or cafe dining. This was elephant graveyard Miami Beach, God's waiting room, overrun by Marielitos holed up in boarded-up hotels on Ocean Drive a la Oliver Stone's Scarface. It was a sleepy small beach town Miami mainlanders feared.

For Saul, this was an open playing field, a chance for him to make a difference and spark his fortune. Bolstered by tax-credit incentives, he and his partners from a NY real estate investment company began buying and renovating choice parcels of real estate. Through the '80s and '90s, they acquired and renovated many quaint Art Deco apartment buildings near Flamingo Park -- Parc Vendome, 736 13th Street; The Fenimore, 1200 Euclid; The Henderson, 1051-1061 Euclid; The Wilbur, 1226 Drexel; The Dixon, 730 10th Street; Central Parc, 1341 Meridian; The Gatsby, 1351 Meridian; Sandra, 1361 Meridian; The Fitzgerald, 850 15th Street. After renovating these apartment buildings, Saul turned his attention to buying retail properties: The Washington Center, 1121-1151 Washington where Streamline HQ is now, and Grand Trine Shops on 915-943 Washington. 

"Five of these apartment buildings were right on Meridian Avenue," says Saul nostalgically. "That has always been my favorite street because of the canopy of trees along Flamingo Park that cradles the drive." He talks about the good old days: "When I finished renovating my first building in 1986, and put out my “'For Rent' sign, I had no idea if anybody would even rent a single apartment! People thought I was crazy: 'I can't believe you're putting all this money into these old buildings!' Was it a sound investment strategy? Maybe not. But it was also a labor of love. Next thing I knew I went from renovating a single apartment on [Manhattan's] Upper West Side for $30,000 to renovating 100 apartments down here for $5 million."

And, that's how Streamline Properties was born over 30 years ago. Times have changed exponentially, but we're still here. We know the town. We know the turf. If you're looking for your next home away from home, for that certain Miami Beach condo for sale, call us. 305.532.7368.

For more looks back, watch this interview with Saul from the FIU's "Visual Memories" vault.  http://libtube.fiu.edu/Play/121

- Cyn. ZarcoMore Info