Miami developer Jorge Perez is planning to add hotel rooms and condos to the Brickell area in what would be his third project in Miami's financial district.
A Perez affiliate plans to build 132 hotel rooms and 450 condos near his Icon Brickell, also home to condos and a hotel. One of Icon Brickell's three towers, completed during the recession, is home to the Viceroy Hotel & Spa.
The new project is planned on a 56,090-square-foot parcel at 1300 S. Miami Ave. Perez's Related Group of Florida subsidiary, PRH 1300 S. Miami Avenue LLC, acquired the site for $18.5 million late last year. The price tag included approvals to build 600,000 square feet of residential space and about 50,000 square feet of retail and office space.
But PRH won't be using the inherited site plan approval obtained under the city's former zoning code for the Infinity II condo project. Instead, the developer plans to redesign the project to meet the criteria required under the city's revised zoning code, dubbed Miami 21.
"It is our understanding that the project is going to be coming in as of right under the Miami 21 code," said Luciana L. González, assistant to the director of the Miami Planning Department. "In other words, they are redesigning it and submitting under existing regulations rather than using their vested rights."
González said her department hasn't seen any plans yet.
Related executives didn't reply to a request for comment by deadline. Related's proposal was revealed in an agreement PRH signed with the Miami-Dade County Water and Sewer Department to connect future pipes to the county's infrastructure to serve the condos and hotel. The planned high rise also would include 16,755 square feet of restaurant space and 3,174 square feet of retail space.
Hotel Demand
Since the U.S. economy began to emerge from one of its worst recessions in decades, Related, through various affiliates, surfaced as South Florida's most prolific condo developer and has two condo projects under construction in downtown Miami: the 382-condo Millecento and 192-condo Mybrickell. Related affiliates also are building the 249-apartment New River Yacht Club in downtown Fort Lauderdale and the 49-condo Apogee Beach in Hollywood.
Related last year got approval from Hallandale Beach to build Beachwalk, which would contain 216 two-bedroom suites designed to be converted into 432 hotel rooms under a hotel rental program. The plan also calls for 84 condos and a five-level parking garage. Another permitted project is Iconbay, a 42-story condo tower in Edgewater north of downtown Miami.
Hotel experts said Brickell, already home to some of the region's finest hotels like the Mandarin Oriental and the Conrad Miami, is experiencing a growing demand for hotel rooms. The Brickell neighborhood has long been a destination of choice for business travelers but now also is "capturing an entirely new market of leisure travelers from all over the world," said Alyce Robertson, executive director of the Miami Downtown Development Authority, a quasi-government agency in charge of promoting downtown.
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