Developers Pitch 55-Story Residential Tower In Brickell With 2,060-Seat Theater
An affiliate of Miami-based G&G Business Developments is planning a 464-unit residential skyscraper in Brickell that could include a huge theater component.
The affiliate, Millennium Developments, filed a pre-application for a 55-story property on the 0.92-acre site of a gas station four blocks from Brickell Avenue. The developer is considering two options for lower levels of the tower, tentatively named Calle 8, proposing either a retail component or a multilevel concert hall that could seat up to 2,060 people.
The application doesn’t indicate whether the units would be rental apartments or condominiums, but 252 of the planned units are studios, with an additional 37 one-bedroom units and 167 two-bedroom spaces running up the lower floors. Seven three-bedroom units would fill the upper floors, with the top floor planned as a penthouse.
The 685-foot-tall tower would have a ground-floor lobby below a 467-car parking garage running through the 11th floor. The retail space or concert hall would occupy half of the first six floors, alongside the garage.
The retail component would be able to accommodate a department store, according to a letter of intent submitted with the pre-application. The concert hall would seat up to 1,080 people on its first floor and include three balcony levels with 320 seats each.
Calle 8 is also planned to include a 12K SF coworking space on the 12th floor and amenities spanning the 35th through 37th floors, including a pool deck.
G&G didn’t respond to Bisnow’s request for comment.
The property is near the Brickell Metromover station and sits within the Miami-Dade Rapid Transit Zone, which empowers the county to approve higher-density developments near transit stations.
Calle 8’s proposed site spans three parcels that Millennium began acquiring in 2014: 190 Southwest Eighth St. and 161 and 195 Southwest Ninth St.
It paid $9.3M for the Eighth Street parcel in May 2014, property records indicate. The remaining parcels were sold for $7M in January 2015 to an entity called 195 Street Developments, which was registered to Kaufman Rossin accountant Leandro Barbuscio, before being transferred to Millennium Developments in February 2019.
G&G Business Developments, which is run by Germán Coto out of a Brickell office, is also building the Aston Martin Residences at 300 Biscayne Boulevard Way, just north of Brickell in Downtown Miami. That project was designed by Buenos Aires-based architecture firm Bodas Miani Anger, and Calle 8 site plans indicate it also designed the proposed Brickell development.
The 66-story waterfront Aston Martin Residences broke ground in October 2017 where Biscayne Bay meets the Miami River. It was originally slated for delivery at the end of 2022, but delays, including the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of a stucco and drywall company working on the property, pushed the completion date to the end of this year.
Its 391 condos, which a spokesperson said are 98% sold, are aimed squarely at Miami’s luxury buyers. The property will be the only building in Downtown Miami with a marina that can accommodate deep-water yachts. Its seven-bedroom penthouse, listed for $59M, comes with the last remaining Aston Martin Vulcan, a limited-edition race car valued at $3.2M.
Miami’s housing market has continued to benefit from a pandemic-era boom. The city’s metro is the fifth-most-valuable residential market, jumping from ninth place in May 2021, after the city saw an 86.6% increase in values since the start of the pandemic, according to Zillow.
Miami-Dade’s median condo sale price was $420K in July, up 10.5% from a year earlier, the Miami Herald reported. Out of 968 condo sales in September, 51% were priced above $400K, according to a report from Douglas Elliman.
Miami also ranks fifth among the most expensive apartment markets, with median asking rates for a one-bedroom apartment at $2,690, according to Zumper. Rents were up 7.2% year-over-year in September, but a 1.5% decline in month-over-month rates could signal that the market is approaching a ceiling as a record number of under-construction apartments come online.
