SPOTLIGHT
Two mixed-use developments could transform significant sections of the city of South Miami and increase its population by nearly a fifth.
City commissioners have signed off on a $309-million redevelopment plan that would bring 670 apartments in two 15-story towers where City Hall and the police station now stand. It’s a public-private partnership with 13th Floor Investments leading the project, which is being designed by Corwil Architects. It will also add nearly 28,000 square feet of retail space and a new park. A tenth of the housing units will be set aside for workforce housing, available to people earning up to 120% of the area median income.
Commissioners also approved plans to redevelop the Shops at Sunset Place, a 25-year-old mall that is mostly empty. It could add 1,513 residential units in seven buildings rising between 15 and 33 stories high. Plans also include a 287-room hotel and a theater. Another 200,000 square feet will be used for retail and office space.
South Miami commissioners rejected a previous redevelopment plan in 2017, citing concerns over traffic and triggering “extreme development” in the city.
London-based Heatherwick Studio says its design emphasizes walkability and “aims to invigorate the site’s surrounding local business scene, while preserving the city’s distinctive character.”
Combined, the two projects would add nearly 2,200 residential units in a city with an estimated population of just more than 12,000 people.
DEVELOPMENT
- Miami-Dade County is building a $10-million, 102-unit affordable housing complex in the Richmond Heights neighborhood. It’s a joint project with Martin Memorial AME Church. One- to three-bedroom apartments will be available to people making between 30-70% of the area median income when Royal Point Apartments open in 2026.
- Construction is underway at Bay Harbor Towers, a 44-unit condominium on Indian Creek touting views of Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. More than half the units already are sold, with the remaining inventory starting at $2.6 million. PPG Development and L3C Capital Partners team up for the project.
- 2000 Biscayne, a 30-story, 420-unit apartment building, is complete. Rents start at $2,400 for a studio and $6,000 for a three-bedroom unit. The project in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood is by Kushner Cos. and PTM Partners.
TOURISM
- Norwegian Cruise Line plans to sail its new Norwegian Luna out of Miami when it’s completed in the spring of 2026. It will be Norwegian’s 21st ship, longer than three football fields with room for 3,550 passengers and including two-story, three-bedroom, three-bath “Haven Suites” that include butler service and other perks.
- Key West International Airport saw a 10% increase in travelers through early September, topping 1 million passengers for the year. The numbers are expected to improve even more as airlines resume seasonal services to markets like Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
OFFICE SPACE
- Miami-Dade County government operations will have a new home on Flagler Avenue after a $182-million purchase of a sixstory office building. It is expected to house the property appraiser’s office along with the solid waste and water and sewer departments.
LEADERSHIP
- Miami-Dade Transportation and Public Works CEO Eulois Cleckley is the new chief for the Underline, the urban park winding beneath elevated Metrorail lines. About a third of the 10-mile park, including a bike and jogging path with playgrounds along the way, is open with the rest under construction.
HOSPITALS
- Construction is underway on Baptist Health’s Al and Jane Nahmad Women’s Cancer Center at the hospital’s Miami campus. The 155,000-sq.-ft center will take two years to complete. The Nahmads are longtime Baptist Health supporters. Women comprise 65% of the patients at Baptist Health’s Miami Cancer Institute.
ARTS
- Miami Beach city commissioners will spend $492,676 to cover state-budgeted cultural funding that was vetoed last summer by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The city says it’s the first in the state to do so. Sixteen organizations will receive the funding, ranging from the Dance Now! Ensemble, New World Symphony and Miami City Ballet to the city’s Holocaust Memorial.
BANKING
- Miami’s City National Bank will be the official bank of the Miami Hurricanes under a new partnership. City National will have a banking center and ATMs on campus and sponsor the university’s centennial next year. The bank opened in Miami in 1946 and now has $26 billion in assets.
- Miami-based Banesco USA announced $4.2 billion in total assets, just 18 months after the state-chartered bank surpassed $3 billion. It saw $19 million in net income in the second quarter. Founded in 2006, Banesco has six locations in South Florida and Puerto Rico.
IN MEMORIAM
“We need to be perceived as an open, tolerant community that is supportive of all people. We’re already battling the image that everything nutty in the world happens here.”
— Jack Lowell, then-Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce chairman explaining his 2002 support for a Miami-Dade County ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. Lowell, who died of cancer at age 81, was executive vice president of Colliers South Florida and formerly led the Miami-Dade Beacon Council.