Board approves Bancroft façade restoration and Ocean Steps redesign; asks planning board to scrutinize operational intensity

Miami Beach’s Historic Preservation Board voted to approve a certificate of appropriateness for the partial demolition, restoration and adaptive reuse of the contributing Bancroft Hotel and to permit landscaping and design changes in the adjacent Ocean Steps commercial area at 150 Collins Avenue, while asking the Planning Board to scrutinize the intensity of proposed uses when it considers a separate conditional‑use application.

The project would restore exterior features of the Bancroft, reinstall interior floor plates removed in the 1990s and replace non‑historic materials added later. Staff and the applicant said the Bancroft exterior retains high integrity and that the project’s primary exterior changes are new window systems, restoration of the lobby and a program of plantings and shading structures in the Ocean Steps courtyard. “The project is meant to…