Not everyone misses the glitzy light display on the city-owned garage on Las Olas Boulevard near Fort Lauderdale beach.
Leland “Lee” Pillsbury, who lives across from the garage on the west side of the Intracoastal Waterway, says he was thrilled when the lights went dark.
Pillsbury, 78, moved to a home on Castilla Isle with his wife in 1992. In 2007, they tore down the house and built a new one with 13,074 square feet now valued at $17.8 million. Pillsbury, a venture capitalist and native of Ithaca, N.Y., was exasperated by the flashing nighttime light display.
“When the lights were working, they shined into our bedroom windows, even with the curtains closed,” he said. “They put millions of LED spotlights shining off of it. It’s crazy.”
Pillsbury’s assertion that the garage had millions of lights was a bit of hyperbole. He hasn’t counted the lights, but he said he figures there must be thousands.
“It’s a lot,” he said. “It’s hard to believe this ever got built in the first place.”
The five-story garage with the upscale address, 200 E. Las Olas Circle, opened in December 2018. The garage went dark in February 2023 when its pricey lighting system stopped working. It will cost more than $3 million to replace them, according to the latest estimate.
Pillsbury said he phoned and emailed the city to complain, but never got a response. Relief came when the lights went out in February 2023. All was well.
The he read a recent news story in the South Florida Sun Sentinel saying the city was considering spending millions to bring the lights back. And he was alarmed.
“If we spend $3 million replacing those lights, that’s crazy,” Pillsbury said.
Pillsbury might not like the colorful light displays, but most people miss them, said Commissioner Steve Glassman.
“I will just say it’s not what I’m hearing from the overwhelming number of people who have contacted me about it,” said Glassman, whose district includes the beach. “And it’s not my intention to spend millions of dollars. It’s my intention to have the original vendors pay the cost.”
Pillsbury, the managing partner of a venture capital company, made one last point.
“When the lights were working, I laid awake in bed and watched the color and level of light change on the ceiling,” he said. “Shining a light in a building is one thing. Shining a light from a building is something else.”
Fort Lauderdale retained a law firm in late 2023 to investigate the possibility of filing a lawsuit against the companies responsible for the lighting system and decorative wire mesh on the facade of the parking garage.
No lawsuit has yet been filed.
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan