Jeffrey Soffer, the Aventura-based billionaire behind Fontainebleau Development, has filed a plat waiver application to tear down and rebuild Hallandale Beach’s Big Easy Casino as a 165,380-square-foot gaming and entertainment complex, according to The Real Deal, citing the South Florida Business Journal.
The filing, submitted to the city of Hallandale Beach, marks the first formal regulatory step toward what would represent a substantial reinvestment in a property Soffer acquired for $12.5 million in 2018 after it was damaged by Hurricane Irma. The proposed facility would be more than twice the size of the current 70,000-square-foot casino floor, folding a slot room, bar, music venue, smoking lounge, card room, steakhouse, and sports restaurant under one roof. A separate four-story parking structure with 1,700 spaces would accompany the building; Steelman Partners, the Las Vegas firm behind a range of American casino projects, is listed as architect of record.
A plat waiver is a land-use procedural tool in Florida that allows a property owner to reconfigure or consolidate parcels without going through a full replat — typically a faster path through municipal review than a conventional subdivision process. Approval is not guaranteed, and neither a timeline nor a city response to the application had been publicly reported as of Friday…