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Developers of two major projects submitted proposals to a city of Miami board, including plans for a hotel in the Arts & Entertainment District and for a mixed-use tower in downtown Miami.

Rendering of the Sterling and the hotel at 511 Northeast 15th Street (Credit: Shulman + Associates, Behar Font & Partners)

Behar Font & Partners submitted plans for the Sterling, a proposed 73-story tower at 555 North Miami Avenue called the Sterling. Property records show Dania Beach-based Miami 6th Street LLC, an affiliate of the Turkish Okan Group, owns the 36,000-square-foot development site.

Plans call for 362 residential units, a 300-unit key hotel, 55,400 square feet of office space, and retail space.

The Istanbul developer paid $18.1 million for the parking lot near the historic Central Baptist Church in March. At the time, a broker involved in the sale said the site was zoned for a 1,000-foot building with as much as 1.3 million square feet of space for retail stores, offices, hotel rooms and condos.

One Miami Biscayne Bay and Arts District Hotel, a company controlled by Vinay Rama, submitted plans for 42-story, 270-key hotel on the corner lot at 511 Northeast 15th Street in Miami’s A&E District.

Rama heads Miami-based Mandala Holdings, a hospitality investment platform. His firm paid $8 million for the development site north of downtown Miami. The plans, designed by Shulman + Associates, include meeting space, a lobby with retail space, office space for the hotel management, a pool deck and fitness center. The proposal also calls the project Marriott Miami.

Both developments will go before the Miami Urban Development Review Board.

 

Source: The Real Deal

Four developers will seek to rezone property in Miami for major projects, including a 43-story apartment tower by the Melo Group.

The city’s Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board will consider all four applications on March 15. If approved there, the applications would need to pass two readings before the City Commission. These rezoning applications deal with the allowable height and density on the sites, not the specific building designs, which would go through a different approval process.

1. Apartment Building Proposed By Meo Group In Arts & Entertainment District

Miami-based Melo Group, one of the largest residential developers in Miami with its condo and apartment towers, wants to rezone the 1.22-acre site it owns through affiliate Art Plaza LLC in the Arts & Entertainment District. It paid $16 million in 2014 for the property at 1336, 1348 and 1366 N.E. 1st Ave., 50 and 58 N.E. 14th Street, plus 1335 N.E. Miami Court. It’s near where Melo Group is currently building the Square Station apartments.

The area is zoned for 500 units per acre. Attorney Iris Escarra, who represents Melo Group in the application, said it’s not feasible to build to that density level under the site’s current zoning because it doesn’t allow enough square footage. Melo Group intends to build an apartment building with ground-floor commercial space, she said. That location is ideal for Miami workers because it’s near the School Board Station Metro Mover and Melo Group would but a public entrance to encourage mass transit and walking, she added.

The property’s current zoning of T6-24-A would permit a 22-story building of 518,000 square feet with 304 units. Rezoning Art Plaza LLC’s land to T6-24B would allow a 43-story building of 1.28 million square feet with 630 units, according to Escarra’s estimate.

“Square Station has the same zoning,” Escarra said. “This area is really in need of that particular zoning change. It’s important to get people to take the School Board Stop.”

2. Apartment Tower Proposed In Omni

Developers Damian Narvaez and Alex Karakhanian plan to build an apartment building in the Omni neighborhood.

Their co-owned company 2247 N.W. 17th Avenue LLC paid $6.6 million in May 2016 for the 43,262-square-foot site at 1900 N.E. Miami Court. It currently has a 50,317-square-foot building from 1923 that recently housed Aspira Charter School.

The developer seeks to rezone the property from T6-8 to T6-12, which would increase the permitted height from eight stories to 12 stories. The density would remain at 500 units per acre. Attorney Steven Wernick, who represents the developers, said rezoning the property would allow his clients to propose a building closer to the area’s permitted density. If approved, it will design an apartment building with ground floor retail, he said.

“The site is in need of redevelopment to bring more housing into the area,” Wernick said.

Based on an average unit size of 700 square feet, the current zoning would permit a 266,963-square-foot building with 220 units. The new zoning would allow a 444,226-square-foot building with 358 units. Wernick said the final number of units would depend on the design of the building and the size of each unit.

3. MiMo Site Could Be Rezoned

The owner of a 1.33-acre site in MiMo wants to rezone the property for more density.

Todd Leoni manages the three companies 7000 Biscayne LLC, 7100 Biscayne LLC, and 7120 Biscayne that own the property. It covers 7000, 7010, 7020, 7030, 7100, and 7120 Biscayne Blvd. plus 565 N.E. 71st Street. The property currently has a three-story office building, two restaurants and a car wash.

The property is currently zoned T4 and T5. The proposed zoning of T6-8 would allow 85 units. There would be no change in the permitted height, as buildings in the MiMo historic district are limited to 35 feet.

It’s not clear exactly what the developer plans to build. Attorney Gilberto Pastoriza, who represents 7000 Biscayne LLC, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

4. Mixed-Use Proposed In Allapattah

A mixed-use multifamily project is planned for the emerging neighborhood of Allapattah.

Luar Investments LLC, owned by Raul Rodriguez, owns the 44,442-square-foot site at 2950 N.W. 7th Ave., 720, 730, and 744 N.W. 30th Street, and 735 N.W. 29th Street. It currently has an 8,956-square-foot building that’s used by an ambulance company and the parking lot is utilized for ambulance parking to serve the nearby hospitals.

It’s currently zoned T4 with 36 units per acre. The developer wants it rezoned to T5 with 65 units per acre. This would allow about 48 units on the site.

Miami attorney Ben Fernandez wrote in the application that Luar Investments intends to build a mixed-use multifamily development with ground floor commercial space. He couldn’t be reached for comment.

 

Source: SFBJ

There’s a rebirth underway in Miami’s Omni neighborhood, and it’s being fueled not by condo open houses but by craft fairs, film nights, group yoga and live art.

A pair of real estate developers — hoping to sell condos — have drummed up these events to support their vision of an Arts and Entertainment District. Playing to their audience of the young and hip, the developers branded their concept A+E, and their free parties all feature millennial-friendly brands like Whole Foods and Pabst Blue Ribbon.

“Concept isn’t enough. You need people to execute. That’s where we have no added value,” said Nir Shoshani, who runs NR Investments with partner Ron Gottesmann. “We’re not cool, we’re not young, so I needed to find the right people.”

One of those people is Isabella Acker, former marketing director of mega concert promoter Live Nation. Shoshani and Gottesman have tasked her with finding emerging local musicians and bringing in popular acts to perform at A+E events.

The Omni, or A+E, neighborhood is centrally positioned between three highways and near the Metromover, connects to downtown, Wynwood and Edgewater, and is only a short drive from South Beach.

Seeing opportunity in the area, NR Investments bought the distressed Filling Station Lofts at 1657 N. Miami Ave. three years ago and began renting its 81 units at the end of 2013. They also have a 513-unit, 37-story tower called Canvas at 1630 NE First Ave. with pre-construction prices going for about $480 a square foot. “We said, ‘Let’s use the area in order to have people get to know it,” Shoshani said, standing on a lot he and Gottesman own at 14th Street and North Miami Avenue.

It’s the site of a monthly “14th Festival” that A+E started hosting in November, where vendors sell jars of raw local honey, bunches of heirloom tomatoes and pieces of handmade jewelry. Singers belt out songs on a small stage, and visitors grip cans of cold PBR.

Still, the developers realize they have a long way to go to make the sparsely populated Omni area feel cutting-edge, safe and attractive as an Arts and Entertainment district. “It’s very important to see how centralized we are on the one hand,” Shoshani said. “And on the other, how blighted and how there’s nothing here.”

A+E’s growing number of monthly events happen at the Filling Station Lofts, the Canvas space or the grassy lot at 14th and North Miami Avenue.

The Miami International Film Festival offers free screenings of foreign films during a series called Movies Under the Stars, projected monthly onto a screen at the Canvas lot. “Café de Flore,” a film from the director of “Dallas Buyers Club,” played last month to a packed audience who happily sat on lawn chairs and munched on free popcorn.

Yoga sessions and social media workshops for small businesses are also part of A+E’s programs. New events like “art battles” between local street artists are slated for this month.

At “Rooftop Unplugged,” an acoustic music series that showcases Acker’s picks of local musicians, indie-funk groups like The Robby Hunter Band and Elastic Bond perform poolside atop the Filling Station Lofts’ roof.

Bonfire Under the Moonlight” gives people a chance to toast s’mores in the Canvas lot while listening to sets from groups like Suenalo and Grammy-nominated, Afro-Cuban funk band PALO! Small lines form around three food trucks while a larger line waits for mixed drinks and beer.

“It’s got life,” Steve Roitstein, PALO!’s keyboard player and a founding member, said of the A+E concept. While touring country, he said, he noticed that other cities “don’t have what Miami does.” “We have such an incredible music scene, arts scene, theater… so what Arts and Entertainment is doing is shining a light on what’s already here,” Roitstein said. “We need everybody to come out and take part, because without the incredible crowd, we couldn’t do this. We need the energy of the crowd.”

 

Source: Miami Herald