Craig Robins is far from done with his plans for the Miami Design District. Dacra reportedly wants the city of Miami to expand development allowed in the area.
The city’s planning and zoning board will consider on Thursday the application to incorporate a 1.9-acre site into Dacra’s retail project, the South Florida Business Journal reported.
4201 NE 2nd Ave LLC bought the site at 220 Northeast 43rd Street for $12.5 million in July 2014, according to Miami-Dade County property records. David Escava and Ayal Horovits, owners of New York-based Helm Equities, are listed on the company’s corporate filing.
Dacra allowed Helm Equities to join its SAP, or special area plan, for the area under specific conditions.
“We believed it was in the best interest of the neighborhood as a whole for Helm Properties to participate in our SAP. Therefore for this one instance, we established very specific parameters within which our common interests will be presented in the same proposal,” Robins said in a statement.
If allowed, the change would increase: the Design District’s retail zone to 22.9 acres, the number of parking spaces by 304 to 4,056, residential units by 82 to 643, commercial space by 70,000 square feet to reach 1.44 million, and civic space by 4,049 square feet to 45,784.
Luxury retailers already open in the area include Louis Vuitton, Armani/Casa, Celine, Prada, Berluti, Tiffany & Co., Cartier, Hermes and Vhernier. The City View Garage, which will open in March, and the Palm Court Garage, which opened in December, added 862 parking spaces to the area formerly dependent on street and valet parking. Dacra incorporated public art in both projects.
Robins said Dacra is finishing construction of 60 stores in 15 buildings.
Construction of an additional 60 stores will begin soon and is set to be complete in 2016. The second phase will include a hotel and condo project, the newspaper reported. [South Florida Business Journal] — Katherine Kallergis