Get ready for hundreds more residents in Wynwood.
AMLI Wynwood, a property with 316 luxury apartments, is now open, according to the AMLI Residential blog.
Units are available now, the property website shows.
A cross-block pedestrian passage is also now open, the blog post said.
The project also includes 388 parking spaces, and is among the largest to break ground in Wynwood.
Source: The Next Miami
The Julia Residences, a $100 million, 14-story residential tower developed by Neology Life Development Group, announced the receipt of a Temporary Certificate of Occupancy (TCO) for its 323 upscale one- and two-bedroom apartments in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood.
Residents of The Julia will enjoy an array of amenities, including its signature ninth-floor “Sunset Sky Lounge” with a resort-style pool deck, shaded gardens, cabanas, an indoor/outdoor club lounge, a wellness center, and a starlight dining terrace. The property also features private co-working areas, a dog spa, a children’s play area, high-speed fiber optics, and 13,000 square feet of street-level retail space.
“We are excited to announce The Julia Residences has received TCO,” said Lissette Calderon, Founder and CEO of Neology Life Development Group. “This milestone marks the culmination of years of hard work and dedication to creating a distinctive living experience that embodies the spirit and energy of Miami and it’s founder Julia Tuttle. The Julia Residences is a tribute to the significant role women have played in shaping Miami.”
Despite its scale and complexity, The Julia Residences was completed expeditiously, showcasing Neology’s commitment to delivering high-quality developments efficiently. This achievement underscores the company’s dedication to providing attainable luxury living while meeting Miami’s evolving housing needs within a dynamic urban landscape.
“We are very excited to be leading the residential transformation of Allapattah – helping meet the demand for housing while being able to deliver quality and access to professionals that want to live, work, and play within close proximity to the health district, downtown Miami and so many great Miami venues,” added Calderon. “Our three developments in the heart of Allapattah perfectly embody this vision.”
Located at 1625 NW 20th Street, just blocks west of the main entrance to Jackson Memorial Hospital and the new Transplant Institute, The Julia is positioned in the heart of Allapattah, a historic neighborhood bordering Wynwood and home to elite cultural institutions such as the Rubell Museum and Superblue. Allapattah has rapidly emerged as one of Miami’s most coveted neighborhoods, with a burgeoning scene of new businesses, restaurants, and entertainment venues.
Inspired by Miami’s original real estate visionary, American businesswoman Julia Tuttle, The Julia embraces a “tropics-meets-metropolis” aesthetic, combining elements of Art Deco with 1950s-style glam. The pet-friendly property features floor-to-ceiling windows, 9-12 foot ceilings, walk-in closets, and balconies in every unit. Each apartment is equipped with energy-efficient stainless-steel appliances, quartz countertops, European-inspired kitchen cabinetry, and in-unit washer and dryers.
As with Neology’s prior buildings, the general contractor for The Julia is JAXI Builders, Inc.; the architect is Behar Font Architects; interior design is by designBAR; and Witkin Hultz Design is the landscape architect.
The Julia’s central location offers convenient walking access to, the Civic Center Metrorail Station, the University of Miami Health System, Jackson Memorial Hospital, and Miami-Dade College Medical Center. It is also a short distance from Brickell and Downtown, home to major employers, dining, shopping, and popular attractions such as Marlins Park, Kesaya Center, and the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.
Neology also anticipates achieving TCO for Fourteen Allapattah Residences, its third apartment community in the district, by Q3 of 2024. Neology’s current ownership portfolio consists of 1,000+ apartments recently built or under construction in Miami’s urban core, with another 1,600 apartment units in the permitting or predevelopment phase and a pipeline of 2,000 additional units in South Florida and beyond.
Fisher Brothers recently topped off Wynhouse Miami, a mixed-use multifamily development in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood. Delivery is set for the first quarter of 2025.
The eight-story midrise at 2200 NW First Ave. will bring 308 rental units to market. Apartments will range from 474 to 1,405 square feet and feature a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom floorplans, as well as penthouses.
Community amenities will include 26,000 square feet of ground floor retail and paseo space and almost 25,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor amenities, including a lobby lounge, second-floor lawn area, fitness center, co-working lounge, entertainment space, rooftop pool and spa, outdoor entertainment space and barbeque area.
“Wynhouse Miami is the most exciting project yet in Fisher Brothers’ House brand, which will bring a unique character designed to match and enhance the existing culture, history and energy of Wynwood,” Fisher Brothers Partner Winston Fisher said in a press release. “We look forward to the next phase of bringing Wynhouse Miami to life and finalizing its multitude of amenities and artistic details.”
Nichols Architects designed the building, while Suffolk is the general contractor. Interiors were designed by ID & Design International, and Rockwell Group is handling the amenity spaces.
“Today’s achievement celebrates a monumental step in our collaboration with Fisher Brothers to transform Wynhouse Miami from an idea into reality,” said Jay Fayette, president, Suffolk Florida East Coast. “Our industry-leading approach to construction and sophisticated technologies have made the construction of this unique mixed-use building seamless. We look forward to completing this project throughout the year and opening the doors for the Wynwood community to enjoy.”
Source: South Florida Agent
A project is underway on Miami Beach to improve Lincoln Road’s 100, 200 and 300 block and first-phase funds are lined up.
“We started off with a plan for the 100 block, our first phase,” said Peter Kanavos, a partner of the Ritz Carlton Sagamore group. “We’re working subsequently on trying to do the same to revitalize the 200 and the 300 blocks.”
The process is in phases, said Mr. Kanavos. “The monies that we were able to get from the state are going to the first phase, in which we and the city are making equal contributions of $4 million and the state has kicked in about $4.85 million to put towards the reconstruction of the road…. We have something like 7,000 people a day that go back and forth from that beach entrance. It’s a little dilapidated, so we really want to clean that up and make it a beautiful place for people to enter the beach.”
Although the project is well underway, the timeline depends on multiple factors.
“We’re going through an appeal period right now where one of the neighboring hotels has – I think they’re the only people in the whole city that have had objections, which are kind of unclear why, but they’ve been staging an appeal, and that will probably last until sometime this summer,” said Mr. Kanavos. “They already failed with the special magistrate; the first stage of the appeal was this special magistrate. The city and us won that appeal and then I believe the next appeal will not be successful.”
“If we are able to really get over that appeal period, construction of the road would probably start sometime in the first quarter of 2025,” he said, “looking at perhaps 24 months to complete. That can slide. That’s all dependent on a number of factors.”
The improvement was spawned by an analysis he made, said Mr. Kanavos, that showed census statistics that Miami Beach has lost considerable population since 1990. This is most evident in the city center, between Fifth and 23rd streets.
“That has really contributed to a lot of problems, because the eastern end of Lincoln Road, the 100 blocks and 300 blocks in particular – although the whole district – but those areas in particular, are showing the effects of a dwindling neighborhood. We have issues of dereliction, homelessness, crime and so forth,” said Mr. Kanavos.
“What it told me was that we had to repopulate this area as a neighborhood and in order to do that, we have to start really cleaning things up,” he said.
“So the contribution that we made was number one: we reduced the number of our hotel rooms in order to be able to put up a residential condominium, which is going to be part of the Ritz campus.”
For a long time, the city has been living behind a façade of tourism, said Mr. Kanavos.
“That covers up a lot of the sins of a dwindling population,” he said. “If we had been in any other city, without the kind of strong tourist market that we have, and we’d been losing this much population, it would be a disaster.”
Tourism has covered up the issue, but tourists don’t behave like residents do, said Mr. Kanavos. They don’t worry about the crime or a neighborhood becoming seedy – that is, until it gets to the point in which they must go elsewhere to vacation.
“Residents, on the other hand, are engaged,” Mr. Kanavos said. “They have their eyes on the street. If you take a look at South of Fifth, for instance, you look at the character of that neighborhood. It’s clean, it’s neat, it’s safe, because it’s got such a strong residential population. “The first impulse that we had to start this whole thing off was: how do we make this more habitable to bring residential back and that would entail not just building a condominium, but also we wanted to improve the whole quality of the streets,” he said.
The beautification will improve different aspects.
Traffic patterns will be changed in order to make them safer, as currently there are unsafe points, said Mr. Kanavos. An entry monument will be included, inspired by the arts of famed area architect Morris Lapidus that he planned but was never able to effectuate.
“We want to put that entrance monument at the end of the street to mark the beginning of the beach path,” said Mr. Kanavos. “Of course, it’s going to be relandscaped, and we have an art walk planned. We want to be putting public art on both sides of the street – to be determined what – probably, some form of statuary or other forms of art which are to be determined, but we have that plan. It’s really going to become a showcase. And that’s for the 100 block.”
Subsequently, the plans to help the 200 and 300 blocks go through the same transformation are being worked on, said Mr. Kanavos, all part of an effort to turn an area that has been on the decline into a showcase of the city and attract new residents.
“It’s a necessary thing,” said Mr. Kanavos. “It’s been kind of a neglected part of the city even though it’s totally iconic. I mean, when people come to Miami, that intersection between Lincoln and Collins, and Lincoln and Washington, that stretch there has always been one of the most notable parts of the city that people identify Miami Beach with, but in the last few decades it hasn’t seen the kind of attention that it really should get and now we’re trying to rectify that.”
While working on the first phase, they are planning the second: the 200 and 300 block, said Mr. Kanavos. “In fact, we’ve actually already produced a conceptual plan and we’re at the point where we’re just about ready with the county and the city to effectuate the road closure; the ability to close the street off to vehicular traffic on the 200 and 300 block with the idea in mind making an extension of the pedestrian mall further to the west, Lincoln Road Mall.”
The plan is aimed to restore a strong residential component, he said, that will also help businesses thrive due to consistent business residents will provide the stores along Lincoln Road that now battle a fluctuating economy due to dependence on tourism.
“The store owners often tell me that they’re not really getting the kind of tourists that spend a lot of money there,” he said. “I guess you could say they’re underperforming; they’re surviving but underperforming. But we hope to really help the entire district economy by putting a permanent residential base in there that will be long-term residential – in other words, not subject to conversion to short-term rentals, Airbnb and things like that which we feel have really been harmful to the whole neighborhood structure of the central city.”
The project has had tremendous community support, said Mr. Kanavos, with almost universal support “for what’s going on and a great deal of enthusiasm in the city because, in all honesty, we kick-started something that probably should have been done decades ago, but the city often finds itself without the financial wherewithal to do things. They have a lot of demands on their funds.
“By us coming in and putting up monies and also securing, taking the responsibility to secure other monies from the state and so forth,” he added, “we’ve made it financially possible for the city to correct problems in a district that it’s desired to revitalize for some time now.”
Plans will continue to progress in order to finish the job.
“We have committed to actually pay for all the planning costs right through construction on the 200 and 300 block,” said Mr. Kanavos.
“The next steps that we’re working on are going to be to raise money and work … with the property owners in the city to develop a financial plan and other plans to revitalize the two blocks there,” he said. “In essence, for the 200 and 300 blocks, we’re sort of acting as the go-between for our fellow property owners in the city, in order to make the 200 and 300 blocks happen the way we made the 100 block happen.”
Source: Miami Today
A new law in Florida limits the ability of municipalities to prevent the demolition of aging coastal buildings, including architectural icons that have been granted local historical status.
The Resiliency and Safe Structures Act, recently signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, strips local municipalities of their authority to ban, restrict or prevent the demolition of non-conforming and unsafe structures.
Supporters of the bill say it addresses the safety challenges of aging condo towers in the wake of the deadly 2021 Champlain Towers South collapse, which killed 98 people.
The law creates exceptions for buildings that are on the National Register of Historic Places, but it notably does not exempt municipal historic designations, which potentially could have a major impact on iconic buildings in Miami Beach.
The new law effectively strips the Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board of its power to decide whether historic structures can be demolished and, if a building is going to be knocked down, whether some elements of its design must be preserved or replicated.
The new law allows owners to demolish buildings in high-risk coastal flood zones if local officials deem the structures unsafe or if the buildings don’t conform to the base flood elevation requirements set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The law targets oceanfront buildings along a “coastal construction control line,” which delineates how close developers can build to the coast.
Preservationists are warning that numerous Miami Modernist-style resorts along Collins Avenue in the Mid Beach and North Beach neighborhoods of Miami Beach now on the wrong side of the control line-and most of these historic properties don’t conform to FEMA’s latest elevation requirements.
Lawmakers who supported the Resiliency and Safe Structures Act—which sailed through the state legislature by a 36-2 margin in the Florida Senate and 86-29 in the House—say the measure is long-overdue, not just to address safety concerns but to reign in the power of local preservation boards.
Source: GlobeSt.
Regency Development Group wants to build townhomes near Lincoln Road in Miami Beach.
The Chicago-based developer has filed a proposal for a 10-unit project at 1701 Jefferson Avenue, at the corner of 17th Street, a block north of the Lincoln Road shopping promenade.
Called the Villas on Jefferson, the Kobi Karp-designed development would be split between two buildings, each housing five units spanning roughly 2,800 square feet. All residences will be five stories high and include a two-car garage on the ground floor.
The Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board will hear the proposal April 9.
Regency Development Group, led by Michael Troyanovsky, bought the half-acre site for $4.4 million last year, according to property records. The vacant parcel is now used as a parking lot for the nine-story office building at 1688 Meridian Avenue.
A representative for Regency Development Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The previous owner had proposed a 40-unit residential building with a workforce housing component that the Historic Preservation board approved.
Source: Commercial Observer
“The building was designed from the perspective of a woman,” said Lissette Calderon, the CEO of Neology Development Group, as she walked through a corner unit at The Julia, her newest multifamily property in Miami. “Or at least, what I look for in apartments.”
The 323-unit Julia is named after Julia Tuttle, the only woman to have founded a major American city. In the late 1800s, the property owner convinced oil magnate Henry Flagler to extend his rail line to the Miami River, which laid the groundwork for the modern metropolis that would become Miami.
Calderon is somewhat of a maverick, too. A first-generation American and the daughter of a maid, she founded Neology Development Group at age 28. In 2004, the Miami native completed her first development, the 20-story Neo Lofts condo complex along the Miami River.
After years of developing condos, Calderon noticed a gap in the rental market for young professionals, much like herself. That demographic wanted — and still wants — to live in amenitized apartments at reasonable prices near their workplaces, but could not yet afford glitzy neighborhoods such as Brickell and South Beach.
So in 2017, Calderon moved on to Allapatah, an industrial district that’s home to two major hospitals and the Rubell Museum, buttressed by Wynwood and Downtown Miami.
“It’s the belly button of the city, and it was the last authentic neighborhood that had yet to be reimagined,” the developer explained.
While the types of projects that Neology develops have been criticized for gentrifying neighborhoods, Calderon contends that she’s not pushing residents out. The Julia’s 1.6-acre site previously held a cold-storage facility, and another development parcel was home to a pawn shop.
The Julia, Neology’s third Allapattah project, is scheduled to open this month with rents starting at $2,000 a month. With sweeping views of Sunny Isles Beach, Downtown Miami and Coral Gables, the 14-story property pays homage to Tuttle in its design. The orange-colored cabanas commemorate the oranges that Tuttle sent to Flagler to entice him to build farther south. The large black and white tiles in the lobby and pool deck were a popular design feature during Tuttle’s time.
“In the same way that Neo Lofts is the embodiment of the American dream, I hope The Julia is the embodiment for every little girl with big dreams,” Calderon said.
And, much like the American dream and women’s rights, movements that have at times prospered and stagnated, the area surrounding The Julia is still a work in progress.
But with Wynwood and Downtown Miami nearby, as well as the Rubell Museum, hospitals, and brand new buildings with rents starting at $2,000 per month it will not be a work in progress for long.
Source: Commercial Observer
New York-based Abingdon Square is telling prospective buyers that a 0.7-acre assemblage at 2200 and 2230 Northwest Second Avenue and 224 Northwest 22nd Lane could potentially accommodate a skyscraper with 789 residential units under Florida’s Live Local Act, according to an offering memorandum.
The site is being marketed for $31 million. Abingdon Square, led by principal Benjamin Atkins, purchased the three properties for $5.1 million in 2013, records show.
Prospective buyers will be interested in knowing that they could build a potentially larger project under the Live Local Act, Ari Dispenza, who is marketing the site, said.
In Wynwood, the height of buildings is capped at five to eight stories, but developers can go as high as 12 stories in some areas of the neighborhood by offering public benefits. The Abingdon site’s current zoning allows for a five-story mixed-use development of office or residential with ground-floor retail, the offering states. A residential component could only have a maximum of 70 units.
But a project could score an additional three stories and 55 more units by providing public benefits, the memo states.
Yet, the memo primarily highlights the advantages of the Live Local Act, which allows developers to build new mixed-use or residential projects that can be as tall as buildings within one mile. The Abingdon site is within one mile of multiple high-rise buildings.
Source: The Real Deal
Rilea Group is hoping to tap into buyers’ rock ‘n’ roll energy with its latest condo project, where buyers and residents can drive a fleet of Harley-Davidson motorcycles and relax in a vinyl record lounge.
The Miami-based firm is launching sales of a short-term rental-friendly project in Wynwood called The Rider at Wynwood, according to Rilea President Diego Ojeda. Ojeda said he even trademarked the phrase, “Take a ride on the wild side,” a play on Lou Reed’s “Take a walk on the wild side.”
The 12-story, 146-unit building, planned for 94 Northeast 29th Street, will be next to Rilea’s Mohawk at Wynwood, a planned 12-story, 300-unit apartment building at 56 Northeast 29th Street. Coastal Construction will be the general contractor for both, Ojeda said. Construction is expected to begin this year.
The Rider at Wynwood, which got its name in part because of its proximity to Brightline’s planned Wynwood station, will have units priced from the $600,000s to $1.8 million. Buyers will face no rental restrictions and can enter their units into a rental program or manage them themselves. Cervera Real Estate is handling sales and marketing.
The units will be delivered furnished, with high-end amenities that include Bertazzoni appliances, Cosentino Dekton countertops and Porcelanosa bathroom fixtures.
Condos offering short-term rental options have become a favorite for investors across South Florida because iInvestors can profit more from renting their units out for shorter periods of time than traditional rentals.
The Rider will have 11,000 square feet of retail space, divided between 5,000 square feet on the ground floor and the remainder for a 6,000-square-foot rooftop speakeasy lounge inspired by Sugar at East, Miami, that will be accessible via two private elevators. The rest of the rooftop will be for residents only.
Source: The Real Deal
A new multifamily proposal in the Ojus neighborhood of Aventura is the latest in a string of signals that developers are leveraging the recently opened Brightline station in the area to add density to their projects.
Developers Ram Realty and Pinnacle Housing are proposing a 16-story apartment building at 19640 W. Dixie Highway, directly across from the Aventura Mall and Brightline station. The joint venture submitted a pre-application with Miami-Dade County for the project, which would include 334 units, 10% of which would be designated as workforce housing, set atop a four-level parking garage.
Site plans submitted to the county include a 2,900 SF ground-floor retail space marked for coworking and a dog-washing station. A fifth-floor pool deck would have amenities including a fitness center, golf simulator and 2,700 SF club room. The building, designed by Orlando-based architect Baker Barrios, would have units ranging from studios to three-bedroom apartments.
Apartments would rise on three sides of the pool deck starting on the fifth floor before shifting to cover only two sides of the property beginning on the ninth level.
The proposal is an update to plans originally presented in January 2022, leveraging zoning changes passed last year to increase the project’s density by 49 units, according to a letter of intent submitted by Edward Martos, a partner at Weiss Serota Helfman Cole + Bierman who is representing the developers.
The workforce housing units would be available for residents making up to 110% of the area median income, or $82,170 for a single person, Martos said in the letter of intent, which asks the county to provide feedback on the project at the next available pre-application meeting.
The joint venture paid $15.4M in January 2022 to acquire the vacant 2.25-acre parcel via an entity called 19640 WDH LLC, property records indicate.
The seller was an entity controlled by Miami Beach-based Privé Group, a development and land banking firm that has also proposed a new project near the Aventura Brightline station.
Privé Group filed a pre-application in January, disclosing plans for an 11-story office building with a 12-unit residential component connected by a parking garage at 18820 W. Dixie Highway, half a mile from the Ram and Pinnacle site.
That proposal also took advantage of changes to the zoning rules that increased the maximum allowable density in the county’s Ojus District. The neighborhood has attracted interest from developers since the Brightline added a station adjacent to the Aventura Mall in December 2022.
Aventura-based BH Group also filed a pre-application last January to replace eight small apartments and a vacant lot with a 132-unit apartment building spanning 232K SF, the South Florida Business Journal reported at the time.
Raphael Ammar, a preschool developer and operator, filed plans in August for an 18-story mixed-use project with 210 apartments called The Gateway in Ojus, The Real Deal reported, and Lumer Real Estate and Goldberg Cos. filed plans in November for a 700-unit apartment complex in the neighborhood, according to TRD.
Mark Gilbert, a vice chair at Cushman & Wakefield who recently brokered the $48M sale of a 90K SF shopping center near Ojus in Aventura, told Bisnow earlier this month that the opening of the Brightline station was transformative for the area.
“The amount of residential growth and commercial activity in the region is probably unprecedented,” Gilbert said.
Source: Bisnow