Foot traffic is booming on Wynwood’s busy Northwest 24th Street. Now, developers are eyeing the Northwest 28th Street corridor as the next neighborhood hot spot.
The Wynwood-based development firm Fortis Design + Build told the Miami Herald it has two projects planned for the strip: a 15,000-square-foot office/retail center and a 50,000-square-foot commercial space whose use has not yet been finalized.
“We feel that 28th Street is the next 24th Street. That’s why we are so interested in this area,” said David Polinsky, Ph.D. and partner of Fortis Design + Build. “It’ll look like a complete neighborhood within three years.”
The smaller, two-story building, at 2734 NW First Ave., is expected to open in 2020 and cost under $6 million. It will offer 5,000 square feet of ground floor retail space, 5,000 square feet of office space on the second floor and 5,000 square feet of entertainment or amenity space on the roof top. Each floor will have 22-foot ceilings should a tenant want to expand and add a mezzanine.
Jason Chandler, chair of Florida International University’s architecture department, is designing the exterior and interiors. The City of Miami hired ArquitectonicaGEO to design a one-way road and pedestrian-friendly street adjacent to the project.
“You get a Lincoln Road-style experience but in Wynwood,” Polinsky said.
Fortis has submitted for permits, said Polinsky, and should break ground by late January. The building may have a single office tenant and three retail tenants or a single tenant that leases the entire building. “We’ll make our decision on who the tenant or tenants will be once we break ground,” Polinsky said.
The larger, 8-story building at 82 NW 28th St. is still in the design phase, said Polinsky. Groundbreaking is scheduled for 2021.
Wynwood has experienced a boom in office space since 2018, part of Miami’s overall office construction boom that is the largest since 2009.
A growing customer base is driving more developers to Wynwood, Jonathan Rosen, senior associate at JLL, said.
“The key demand is the customer base from tourists and new residents.”
And it’s not over.
“If you compare Wynwood to other submarkets like Brickell,” Rosen said, “Wynwood still has room to grow.”
Source: Miami Herald