MIRAMAR--Looks may not be everything, but Miramar officials recently demonstrated they think appearances do matter when they approved money for a face lift of a building near State Road 7.

La Vie En Rose Banquet Hall, 6040 SW 21st St., has been allotted $50,000 through the city's Commercial Facade Rehabilitation Program, said Gus Zambrano, the city's economic development and revitalization manager. The program is financed by federal Community Development Block Grant money.

New owners Santiago and Ana Cruz of Hollywood expressed their enthusiasm about the project after receiving the thumbs-up to redesign the building's facade, parking lot, signs, lighting and landscaping.

"The place is going to be gorgeous. Miramar's going to be proud," said Santiago Cruz, adding that the interior has already been redone.

He said he bought the building for his wife because of her dream to own and operate a banquet hall.

The grant is earmarked to improve the exterior of the building as long as the architecture is consistent with the style of the city. In Miramar, a stipulation is that the facade must be in keeping with its Mediterranean architectural design.

"Redevelopment continues to happen in our older neighborhoods, and I'm very happy to see one of our older established buildings undergoing this type of renovation," Mayor Lori Moseley said. "It will become an asset to the community."

The building, which formerly housed an Italian American club, is in the city's "overlay district," deemed by commissioners as needing enhancements for commercial structures. By city ordinance, all structures within these boundaries -- Southwest 62nd Avenue, Pembroke Road, State Road 7 and Countyline Road -- must be rehabilitated by 2011, according to Zambrano.

Donald Waldron, the city's committee development director, said he sees the Commercial Facade Rehabilitation Program as a real achievement of the commission. "It brings added value for the community in low- and moderate-income areas," he said.

Under this program, the city has helped improve the exterior of six other businesses, Waldron said, and about five or six applications are pending.

To qualify for the grant, the building must either be in a low- or moderate-income area, or serve a low- to moderate-income population, Waldron said

(source) Sun Sentinel (Laura Burdick-Sherman) 3-10-04