Oak Row Equities scored approval for a 526-unit apartment tower in downtown Miami, after failing last year to impress a city board with the building’s design.
The Miami Urban Development Review Board voted in favor of the 45-story First & Fifth project with a five-story podium with retail and 135 parking spaces at 49 Northwest Fifth Street and 50 Northwest Sixth Street, across the street from Brightline’s MiamiCentral. The site is home to the historic Salvation Army Citadel building, which will be preserved.
Board members approved the project last week, after taking issue with the previous design at their Nov. 20 meeting. Among the sticking points: A mismatch between the five-story podium, which had exterior arches, and the rest of the tower, board members said in November. Also, the design incorporated the historic building into the project instead of highlighting the Salvation Army Citadel and letting it stand on its own.
“We heard the commentary about the arches and went back to the drawing board and started to rethink how we can appropriately pay homage to the historic portion, but also allow it to breathe in its own right,” Gadiel Marquez of ODP Architects told the board at its Wednesday meeting.
As a result, ODP scrapped the podium arches and went for “squared off” exterior design elements that are more modern, he said. In addition, the design will either have a “blank canvas that has some fenestration that is directly tied to the historic portion,” or a vertical green garden, Marquez said. The green wall would wrap around the building, helping break the tower’s scale, he added.
Some board members said the tweaks aligned “perfectly” with the feedback ODP received at the last meeting, and others said the changes make for a “much better project.”
“The redesign … creates a distinction between the podium and the tower, and it creates a distinction between the podium and the pedestrian level,” board member Agustin Barrera said.
The board approved the project with the condition that Oak Row and ODP go with the green wall option to highlight the historic building and use natural plants. The board’s power is merely to make a recommendation, with city planning and zoning staff holding final authority.
First & Fifth is one of several Oak Row projects in Miami. The firm, which has offices in New York and Miami, has made hefty investments in the city in recent years.
Led by David Weitz and Erik Rutter, Oak Row and its partner Mariposa Real Estate emerged last month as the buyer in a $520 million contract for Aimco’s 4.25-acre waterfront assemblage, consisting of the 32-story Brickell Bay Office Tower at 1001 Brickell Bay Drive and the adjacent 31-story, 357-unit Yacht Club Apartments at 1111 Brickell Bay Drive in Miami. The site can be redeveloped with multiple supertalls with a combined 3.1 million square feet.
Oak Row is partnering with L&L Holding Company, Shorenstein Properties and Marcelo Claure’s Miami-based Claure Group on the development of Wynwood Plaza at 95 Northwest 29th Street in Miami with a 12-story, 266,000-square-foot office building; a 509-unit luxury apartment building; 32,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor retail space; and a 26,000-square-foot public plaza.
In Miami’s Edgewater, Oak Row plans a 41-story tower with 399 luxury apartments and 187,000 square feet of commercial space at 2600 Biscayne Boulevard; and is partnering with Alex Karakhanian’s Lndmark Development on a multifamily tower on the northeast corner of Northeast 29th Street and Northeast Fourth Avenue. Construction is expected to begin early this year.
