Judge tosses Nikki Beach suit, but docs show cozy ties between city and Boucher, Carbone
When a law partner of Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber was seeking a Saturday night reservation this past May for his daughter’s birthday at Carbone — known as one of the hardest-to-book restaurants in South Beach — Gelber texted the details four days in advance to Jeff Zalaznick, a co-owner of Carbone parent company Major Food Group.
Prime-time reservation spots at Carbone are typically snatched up a month in advance. But Gelber didn’t seem worried about Zalaznick’s ability to make it happen.
“Carbone — indoors. Adam Schachter (law partner). May 13 at 7pm. Party of 5 (Daughter birthday),” Gelber wrote. “Thanks!!!”
The text messages were released in the discovery phase of a lawsuit filed in May by the owners of South Beach day club Nikki Beach, in which the owners say city officials have prematurely decided to boot Nikki Beach from the site after its lease with the city expires in 2026 and bring in a joint venture by Major Food Group and beach concession operator Boucher Brothers.
Their argument has so far been unconvincing for Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Lisa Walsh, who dismissed the lawsuit on Aug. 1, calling the claims “speculative and unripe” and giving Nikki Beach owners Jack and Lucia Penrod 20 days to file an amended complaint.
The city of Miami Beach is still awaiting responses to a request for proposals due later this month.
But Gelber’s messages with Zalaznick and other documents obtained by the Miami Herald could add fuel to the Penrods’ claim that they are victims of a sham process to determine the future of the city-owned property at 1 Ocean Drive, pointing to seemingly cozy relationships between city officials and representatives of Boucher Brothers and Major Food Group.
Other examples include:
▪ Zalaznick and Boucher Brothers co-owner Steve Boucher helping a Miami Beach assistant city manager secure a reservation at Carbone in Las Vegas.
▪ Boucher helping to facilitate a day at the beach for a city commissioner and his son.
▪ Zalaznick and Boucher providing free tickets to elected officials, valued at $3,000, to the Carbone Beach event during the Formula 1 race weekend.
▪ Gelber calling a private meeting with Boucher and city officials ahead of a key vote.
In October, when Miami Beach Assistant City Manager Mark Taxis wanted a table for five at Carbone’s Las Vegas location inside the ARIA Resort & Casino, Boucher texted Zalaznick the relevant information, records show.
It should be “no issue,” Zalaznick replied, before saying the reservation had been “confirmed.”
Taxis was later assigned to “take point” on negotiations between the city and Boucher Brothers over potential plans at the Nikki Beach site, according to a deposition of Deputy City Manager Eric Carpenter by Nikki Beach attorneys last month.
City spokesperson Melissa Berthier said Taxis “has never met, spoken or exchanged text messages with Jeff Zalaznick.”
“Steve Boucher did facilitate a reservation for Carbone Las Vegas in October 2022 — in which Mr. Taxis paid his meal in full with his personal credit card,” Berthier said.
Boucher declined to comment for this story. Zalaznick did not respond to a request for comment.
A day at the beach for Arriola
In November, when City Commissioner Ricky Arriola wanted to spend a day at the beach with his son, he texted Boucher: “Hey bud — I want to take Noah to the beach tomorrow — behind Continuum — who do I speak with?”
“I’ll have it set up and let you know who’s working,” replied Boucher, whose company has a contract to provide beach chairs and umbrellas for a fee near the Continuum South Beach condo building.
It wasn’t immediately clear what Boucher “set up” for Arriola, but the next day, Arriola texted him: “We just left!!! Great day,” adding that someone named David had taken “great care of us.”
Arriola told the Herald he didn’t recall the details, but said he paid for the umbrella and chairs as any member of the public would. “I like to get an umbrella when I go so I probably was making sure I could get one,” he said.
In October, Arriola had sponsored an agenda item to talk about the future of Nikki Beach, calling it a “lackluster” establishment and saying Boucher had approached him to express interest in operating at the site.
Arriola then spearheaded an April vote to have city staff pursue a non-binding term sheet with Boucher Brothers, with a possibility of later waiving competitive bidding to enter into a lease agreement — a move that cut against City Manager Alina Hudak’s advice to put the matter out to bid.
Questions about his personal relationship with Boucher are “silly,” Arriola said.
“Penrods’ lawsuit is doing poorly and they’re desperate and grasping at straws,” Arriola told the Herald, noting that he won’t serve on an RFP evaluation committee and will be off the commission this November due to term limits.
City ties matter, Gelber says
Gelber, who is also term-limited in November, similarly brushed off questions about how his personal relationships could affect the process.
He said his friendship with Zalaznick — and use of that connection to secure a dinner reservation for a colleague — is “meaningless” for the future of Nikki Beach. Gelber said he routinely helps residents get reservations at local spots.
“We all have relationships with people,” he said. “It’s still a meritocracy when it comes to these types of decisions. Nobody is getting a leg up because of a reservation.”
At the same time, the mayor praised Boucher Brothers and Major Food Group as good community partners, and said that can factor into decisions about a valuable piece of city-owned land.
Gelber said he was surprised he didn’t meet the Nikki Beach owners until last year, when they came into his office to talk about a potential no-bid extension of their lease. Given the Penrods’ history in the city dating to the 1980s, Gelber said he would have expected to cross paths sooner.
“Who you are in the community, in terms of your history, is not unimportant,” he said. “I’ve lived here for six decades. There are very few people I don’t know who have been here a long time.”
Representatives for Nikki Beach declined to comment specifically on the documents produced in discovery. In a statement, Steve Savola, the day club’s general counsel, said in part: “Our community can get the best results only when everyone has a level playing field.”
Mayor met with Boucher
On April 18, three days before the City Commission’s finance committee recommended that staff enter into exclusive discussions with Boucher Brothers, records show Gelber called a private meeting at City Hall with Boucher, City Attorney Rafael Paz and Carpenter, the deputy city manager.
There, they talked about the possibility of a bid waiver and “what the potential next steps could be,” Carpenter said in his deposition. City officials did not hold any similar meetings with the Nikki Beach owners or other potential bidders ahead of the finance committee vote, Carpenter said.
On April 28, the City Commission accepted the finance committee’s suggestion to pursue a non-binding term sheet with Boucher Brothers. The move was met with public backlash, as residents touted Nikki Beach as a beloved South Beach staple and Lucia Penrod pleaded for community support.
“Whatever I do, the Boucher Brothers are 10 steps ahead of me,” Penrod told the Herald at the time.
Commissioners walked back their April vote in May, directing staff to instead issue a request for proposals for “management or operation of a high end beach establishment and ancillary uses” on the Nikki Beach property and adjacent beach area.
Earlier in May, when Boucher was allowed to offer free tickets valued at $3,000 apiece to the swanky Carbone Beach event he helped produce, he had invited several Miami Beach city commissioners and their significant others to attend, raising ethical questions.
The attendees included Commissioners Alex Fernandez, Laura Dominguez and Ricky Arriola — gifts that may have run afoul of state ethics laws because Boucher Brothers is a city vendor and representatives of Boucher and Major Food Group were registered lobbyists in the city at the time.
Zalaznick, meanwhile, invited Gelber, his wife and his chief of staff to attend Carbone Beach, where Gelber presented a key to the city to Stephen Squeri, the CEO of event sponsor American Express.
In text messages, Gelber and Zalaznick talked about how to respond to a Herald inquiry about the tickets.
“The Herald wants to know where my Carbone on the beach tickets came from, I assume I say major food group or Carbone restaurant?” Gelber wrote on May 8.
“Whatever you think is best,” Zalaznick replied. “Just tell me and I can say same thing.”
Gelber asked if it would be accurate to say American Express was the “underwriter,” adding: “By the way, I’m not sure it matters really for me since I was on the program. Looking after the other Commissioner’s [sic] at this point.”
Zalaznick did not respond to that message, records show. In a deposition, he said he and Boucher had each been allotted a certain number of invitations to the event for high-profile guests.
“It’s not really a comp,” Zalaznick said. “It’s more of an invite.”
Gift disclosure filings related to Carbone Beach are due to the state ethics commission next month.
High stakes on valuable land
The Nikki Beach location is “probably the most valuable piece of land in the city,” Gelber said, given its waterfront location at the city’s southern edge. Recent appraisals have put its value as high as $25 million.
Under their current lease, the Nikki Beach owners pay the city 6.5% of their gross receipts each year.
The daytime beach club has become a popular South Beach hangout and spawned other Nikki Beach locations around the world since its lease with the city began in the mid-1980s.
But residents of the South of Fifth neighborhood, which has seen several luxury condo towers rise since the late 1990s, have complained over the years about the club’s presence in their backyard and called for something new in its place.
The Penrods say they have listened to their neighbors, taking steps to limit noise and closing their doors at 7 p.m.
“Nikki Beach’s mission is to be a valued City partner in providing the highest quality venue, product and services to the citizens of Miami Beach,” said Savola, the club’s attorney.
The city has held two meetings for prospective bidders, requiring them to attend at least one to be considered for a lease at the site. It wasn’t immediately clear who attended.
On July 31, the Nikki Beach owners filed a formal protest of the city’s request for proposals, saying the process has been “marred by inappropriate political influence and preferential treatment of prospective bidders.”
City officials agreed to tweak one part of the bid language and extend a deadline to respond to later this month, but otherwise shot down the day club’s claims of an unfair process.
The club’s owners made “numerous unsupported allegations that essentially claim that the outcome of this procurement is predetermined, and that if this solicitation results in an award to any proposer other than Penrod, it must therefore be illegitimate,” Hudak and Paz, the city manager and attorney, said in an Aug. 4 memo.
“Such allegations are factually and legally meritless,” the memo says.
