A Miami design review board greenlit two Live Local Act projects in Wynwood Norte and Overtown with nearly 800 units, combined.
ABH Developer Group, led by Alexis Bogomolni, plans the Modis Architects-designed 36-story Wyn Park tower with 293 units and a rooftop restaurant at 3311 and 3327 Northwest Second Avenue, 169 Northwest 33rd Street and 182 Northwest 34th Street in Miami’s Wynwood Norte neighborhood. In Overtown, an entity tied to Alan Omsky, co-founder of the KYU restaurant, plans a Kobi Karp-designed 55-story, 498-unit tower at 1210 Northwest Second Avenue and 211 and 223 Northwest 12th Street.
The developers designated 40 percent of apartments at their towers –– or 117 units at Wyn Park and 200 units at the Overtown project –– for households earning up to 120 percent of the area median income, consistent with the Live Local Act’s requirement.
The Miami Urban Development Review Board approved the projects at its meeting on Wednesday. Board members raved about Kobi Karp’s design of the Overtown tower and approved it with a 3 to 0 vote. They were less thrilled about Modis’ design of Wyn Park and approved it with a 2 to 1 vote. (The UDRB has 11 members, with three of them present for the vote on the projects.)
“I just can’t get on board with it as a successful articulation. … The attempts on the façade. The Lego-esque pieces,” board member Dean Lewis said about Wyn Park. “The podium and the tower are trying to be related, but at the same time, I just don’t see that fluidity in the dialogue. I see you knitting but I don’t see you weaving.”
The tower also lacks “signage or stimulus” to denote the rooftop restaurant, Lewis said.
“How does this fit in Miami and the polycultural impact and the styles?” he added.
UDRB Chair Ligia Ines Labrada was more receptive to the design, saying the architect handled the ground-floor retail “successfully.”
“I really don’t mind how you weaved the podium with the tower,” she said, suggesting the architect can tweak the darker colors. “It’s a tough project.”
Labrada and board member Manuel Gustavo Gallardo voted to approve the project with several conditions, including that the architect reconsider the rooftop design, extend the ground-floor canopy and revisit the massing, materials and colors on the façade. Lewis voted against the project.
The board approved Omsky’s project with much less discussion.
“I really do appreciate the project. And you get an economy of gesture without overly pushing,” Lewis said.
The tower’s podium will include permanent exterior murals of portraits of Overtown residents by artist Yana Volf.
“We have an opportunity to bring the art of Overtown into Overtown,” Karp said during the meeting, adding that the tower will be of condominium quality. “Some people said to me, ‘We would like to have a quality project in the community that is within the Live Local [Act].’”
Board members still imposed some conditions for its approval, including that the architect study the possibility of doing the murals as live art through a projection, add planters along the sidewalk and tweak the design to “celebrate” the main entrance.
The UDRB’s vote is merely a recommendation, and final say rests with the city’s planning and zoning department officials.
Developers have seized on the Live Local Act with a flurry of project proposals. The state law, approved in 2023 and tweaked in the subsequent two years, allows developers to build larger projects as long as they include affordable and workforce apartments. The units have to remain income restricted for at least 30 years.
In Miami’s Allapattah, Calta Group scored UDRB approval last month for its Live Local Act project, the 30-story, 499-unit Anatomia at 1415–1469 Northwest 13th Terrace. Midtown Capital plans a 22-story, 348-unit tower at 7501 and 7553 Northeast Second Avenue in Miami’s Little River.
In the biggest known South Florida Live Local Act project, Spanish developer Pablo Castro and Laura Tauber of Bay Harbor Islands-based real estate firm Taubco plan the The HueHub with 4,032 units in seven 35-story towers at 8395 Northwest 27th Avenue in Miami-Dade County’s
West Little River neighborhood.
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