Ironstate Development and partner Brookfield Properties want to build an Urby-branded apartment building on the former Art by God site in Wynwood.
Hoboken, New Jersey-based Ironstate, led by brothers David and Michael Barry, proposes the eight-story building on 1.3 acres between Northeast 26th and 27th streets, and on the east side of the Florida East Coast Railway, according to Ironstate’s affiliate’s filing with the Miami Urban Development Review Board.
The board is expected to take up the project plan at its Wednesday meeting.
The properties are at 26 and 60 Northeast 27th Street, and at 25 and 61 Northeast 26th Street. Ironstate paid $15.6 million for the real estate last year, marking the company’s first South Florida site purchase.
Wynwood Urby would have 289 units, ranging from studios to one- and two-bedroom apartments, and more than 17,000 square feet of commercial space, according to the filing.
The 5G Studio Collaborative-designed building would include a two-story garage and a bistro. The third floor would have a gym and a yoga studio, as well as a landscaped terrace, the plans show.
The Urby multifamily brand aims to create a community setting, according to its website. It collaborates with Amsterdam-based Concrete Architects, which has designed citizenM hotels, the project filing states.
The Wynwood site now consists of a warehouse that previously housed the Art by God museum and store, as well as an adjacent storage building. The rest of the property is vacant.
Gene Harris founded Art by God in 1982 and opened the Wynwood store in 2014.
Art by God originally was in contract to sell the Wynwood site to Miami Beach-based Lucky Shepherd, which planned an eco-friendly hotel, but Lucky assigned the contract to Ironstate. Art by God also has a store at 1280 Northwest 74th Street, just north of Miami.
Ironstate has more than $1 billion of residential, hotel and mixed-use projects underway, according to its website.
Brookfield Properties is the real estate development and management arm of Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management, a publicly traded alternative investment manager with $725 billion of assets under management, according to both companies’ websites.
The proposal is the latest for an apartment project in Wynwood, a former warehouse district that has become gentrified and redeveloped into an arts and dining hub. The area has seen an onslaught of investment and development, including multifamily projects.
In April, New York developer Jenny Bernell, an ex-EVP of development at Kushner Companies, bought the properties at 2000 North Miami Avenue and 2021 Northwest Miami Court for $19.1 million. Bernell, through her Clearline Real Estate, plans a mixed-use project that would likely include apartments.
Chicago-based Fifield Companies bought 1.4 acres on the northwest corner of Northeast 27th Street and the train tracks for $19.5 million in January. Fifield plans to build an eight-story, 210-unit Wynwood Station apartment project with roughly 10,000 square feet of retail and a pedestrian paseo.
