Miami Worldcenter to get 53-story condos-and-hotel tower

A developer is bringing a new mixed-use residential tower that will include a hotel and outdoor dining to Miami Worldcenter.

Miami A/I Parcel 3 Subsidiary LLC has presented a plan for Miami Worldcenter Block C East at 155 NE 10th St., in the northern edge of the booming Miami Worldcenter District.

This latest project will be a 53-story mixed-use tower with a 280-key hotel, along with 351 luxury condominiums, commercial-retail uses including a two-story restaurant, and a parking podium for up to 331 vehicles.

The city’s Urban Development Review Board has recommended approval with one condition: Incorporate artistic treatment, in coordination with city staff, on the south elevation of the garage podium.

Worldcenter is a collaboration of Miami Worldcenter Associates and a team of development, design and engineering firms. The entire development promises a mix of residential towers, hotels, retail stores, restaurants, entertainment venues and a convention center to an area hugged by Kaseya Center and MiamiCentral Station and transportation hub.

Miami Worldcenter is billed as a $2 billion project out to transform 27 acres of Miami’s urban core in the Park West neighborhood.

The new tower will rise with frontages on Northeast Second Avenue on the east and Northeast 10th Street on the north.

Marissa A. Neufeld, an attorney representing the developer, said the property consists of a total lot area of 29,383 square feet or 0.675 acres, and is currently raw land.

In a letter to the city Ms. Neufeld wrote, “The project includes a vibrant mix of uses, integrated both horizontally and vertically.

“At the ground floor, the Project includes 9,723 square feet of retail and restaurant uses, and hotel/lobby reception areas. Traveling vertically, the project includes 280 hotel keys and 351 multifamily units.

“The project incorporates a full suite of amenities, including a gym and spa, a 5,214-square-foot rooftop restaurant and pool, a loaded eighth story amenity deck with indoor and outdoor meeting space, together with a sprawling pool deck, as well as a 25th story amenity deck with a pool and lounge,” she wrote.

She told the review board the project is just west of a dedicated plaza containing about 14,000 square feet, which serves as the northern entry point to a network of civic space/pedestrian paseos.

Ms. Neufeld wrote, “The project has been designed to interact with the North Plaza and North/South Pedestrian Promenade, the MWC District’s Civic Space program … These are master planned civic spaces that include pedestrian friendly hardscape, street furniture, and lighting.

“… Additionally, the applicant is requesting a warrant for outdoor dining … that will offer additional opportunities for public gathering space,” she wrote.

The tower was designed by Nichols Architects.

Igor Reyes of the design team said at the 24th floor is an open two-story amenity deck with a bar, activity spaces, swimming pool, stepped terraces, lounge areas, and an amphitheater.

Board member Ligia Ines Labrada said, “As far as your vehicular circulation, you’ve done an amazing job in bringing the vehicles into your building and away from the street. I love how you’ve broken up the different podiums and given that reprieve. I was particularly interested in your landscaping.

“I think it’s an elegant project, and you’re facing and adjusting to that plaza and giving it that smaller scale, and pushing your tower east gives it a really nice pedestrian feel. Nice job,” she said.

Board member Agustin Barrera said, “I like the way the project is layered. It’s very clear. You don’t have to sit there and try to figure out what’s happening.

“You can see your base at the pedestrian level, I like the scale there, you can see the pedestal for the parking structure and how you’ve dealt with it.

“I like the fact that the vocabulary between the residential and the hotel isn’t completely different. Sometimes architects will do that, where they are completely detached, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

“I like the fact there are similarities, so you can tell they’re part of the same development … and I like the way the amenity levels open up, they come from one side and open to the other. It’s a good project … you worked a lot on the ground floor, which was challenging,” said Mr. Barrera.

Board Chair Ignacio Permuy said, “Only positive things to say. Exceptional job. I really like the massing and placement of the building, and I think it’s going to be a great fit for the immediate area.

“Very well done. It’s not overdone. It’s very clean. The articulation is very straightforward. Beautiful work. Very elegant.
“I do like how you treated the pedestrian scale; it looks inviting,” Mr. Permuy said.