Nearly 2,200 Apartments Across 8 Towers Proposed At North Miami Park
The North Miami City Commission is considering a proposal to build 2,190 apartments as part of a redevelopment of Claude Pepper Park.
The proposal, from Miami Beach-based Redwood Dev Co, includes eight buildings designed by Kobi Karp rising from 11 acres adjacent to the park. The project would include 121K SF of retail space and 4,114 parking spaces. Commissioners are considering the proposal Tuesday night after awarding Redwood a land lease at the property as part of a 2022 request for proposals.
The plan is for 18-story towers to rise from the western portion of the park at 1525 NW 135th St. The developer would also spend around $14M to renovate existing sports fields and the Joe Celestin Center community facility, according to a letter of intent submitted to the commission by Mickey Marrero, an attorney at Bercow Radell Fernandez Larkin & Tapanes who is representing the developer.
Three of the eight buildings, totaling 918 units, would be dedicated for senior living, according to the letter of intent. The remaining buildings would include market-rate and workforce housing.
The expansions to the Celestin Center, originally built in 2012, would include classrooms, a computer lab, a kitchen, a gym, a terrace and a ballroom. Redwood would also add a new concession stand to Claude Pepper Park and build an amphitheater and community pool.
The development would be completed across four phases, with the public improvements all part of the first phase, according to the proposal.
“Redwood CP Dev, LLC engaged best-in-class firms to deliver an exceptional development at Claude Pepper Park that will transform the west side of North Miami,” Marrero said in an emailed statement. “Miami-Dade County’s housing crisis has the ability to be solved through public-private partnerships.”
Redwood didn’t respond to Bisnow’s request for comment.
Site plans submitted for review show two sets of buildings, each with four L-shaped towers connected by a 12-story parking garage. Apartments in the towers would range from one to three bedrooms, and each of the two parking garages would be topped by a pool deck.
Renderings show dark glass-ensconced buildings with no patios and undulating horizontal white design elements to break up the project’s verticality. The images show ground-floor retail running around the perimeter of each of the eight buildings with lush, shaded sidewalks wide enough to accommodate restaurant patios.
Redwood Dev Co is a joint venture between private equity firm BAS Holdings and lender Winston Capital Partners, both based out of Miami.
The proposal is the latest in a series of recent plans for massive projects aimed at addressing Miami’s housing affordability crisis.
Last month, a plan for 3,233 residences was proposed in West Little River by an entity called 27th Ave Hollandpark Ecoresidences LLC.
The developer, which is being represented by Bilzin Sumberg attorney Anthony De Yurre, is leveraging the Live Local Act to propose towers rising from 26 to 37 stories. The law requires at least 40% of units to be set aside for workforce housing to qualify for the density bonuses that allow the developer to build to those heights.
Coconut Grove-based Swerdlow Group and AJ Capital Partners have the largest recently submitted plan. The developers responded to a request for proposals from Miami-Dade County to redevelop a few subsidized housing properties with a plan to build 4,900 affordable units along 65 acres stretching through Little Haiti and Little River.
In Broward County, the city of Margate is trying to get in on the appetite for sprawling projects from developers. It announced its own request for proposals process in May to redevelop 50 acres in the city’s downtown with the aim of creating a mixed-use destination along Highway 441.
