Category Archives: Pieces to the Puzzle
(Park) Poor Brickell
The Infrastructuralist has a good article on the most notable urban parks in the world. It is a list of the vast green lungs on which great cities breathe–something our emerging City is starved of. There is no great urban park in Miami. … Continue reading
Filed under Brickell Village, Parks
Herald Land Sale Saga Over
With the acquisition of the Miami Herald property by Genting Malaysia, a several year old land sale saga is over. It began with Pedro Martin’s plans for CitiSquare, and when that fell through, Mark Siffin emerged with his own controversial plan, and when that … Continue reading
Collins Avenue Development Activity Expanding
Image: Formerly Fairwind Seafood Bar and Grill
On May 17, last year, I wrote a post on the Collins Avenue Shopping District’s relatively rapid emergence and unique attributes. I ended the post by stating:
“The shopping district currently ends at 10th street, but there is room for it to expand northward. Collins, between 10th and 15th streets represents an underutilized segment of the storied avenue.”
Since then, the area north of 10th street on Collins has begun to transform as the anticipated northward expansion of new retail and hotel activity takes place. Structures are getting bought, restored, or demolished to make way for new businesses.
South Beach as a neighborhood and international brand has continuously redefined itself. It’s in these subtle changes, the motifs within the theme, that you see the redefinition taking place, so that every time a New Yorker or Londoner visits SoBe they feel like the experience has improved. This adaptability, along with the endowments nature has granted the island, is the key to its continued success.
Let’s see what this expansion looks like on the ground: Continue reading
Filed under BoB Articles, Miami Beach: SoFi, Miami Beach: South Beach
Commercial Development: Brickell Village Outlook
The chart below is one of several I prepared that are based on the latest DDA Development Activity Breakdown Report. It represents office/retail development (built, under construction, and approved) from 2002 to mid-2007 in Brickell Village. In an effort to compare DDA data with with an alternative source (to get the best overall picture), I deferred to CBRE’s market outlook. Let’s look at the DDA derived chart first: Continue reading
Filed under BoB Articles, Brickell Village, Commercial Developments, Economy
Parkwest and Falcone Further Considered
The New Landlord of Parkwest
Under normal circumstances, Falcone’s plans for Parkwest would be astounding, but in Miami, normal circumstances are hard to come by. There are other projects that resemble Falcone’s vision for a city-within-a-city nearby: CitiSquare, Omni, and Midtown. In fact, his vision is simply the latest of Miami’s mega projects. This does not change the fact that his vision is unprecedented in scale and scope… Continue reading
Big Plans for Parkwest
I have spent a considerable amount of time evaluating Parkwest’s prospects. Its location in the heart of the CBD, proximity to the proposed Museum Park, new ultra-luxurious condos, among other things, makes the neighborhood an important piece of Miami’s urban puzzle. Boca Raton builder Art Falcone, the latest billionaire in the Miami development mix, has, according to the latest Herald article… Continue reading
Development Outlook: Midtown Miami & Vicinity
Image: Midtown Four and Midblock
The Foremost Symbol of Miami’s Emerging Urbanism
Midtown Miami is, in many ways, the most obvious symbol of Miami’s rapid urban transformation. It exhibits Miami’s architectural star power, represents the most ambitious push west for urbanism in the city thus far, sits on a formerly blighted and infrastructureless area of the city, and incorporates large-scale commercial and residential elements. For all intensive purposes, it is a city-within-a-city.
Image: The shops at Midtown Miami’s northwest side
The Skeptics Viewpoint
Yet, despite this, there are those that recall the past failure of the much hyped Omni Mall when considering Midtown’s prospects for success. However natural this historic allusion may seem, the Omni, which never had the residential component Midtown has, is currently owned by a New York-based firm with billion dollar plans that span 10-15 years. Suffice to say times have changed. Then there are those that claim the project is… Continue reading
3rd Quarter 07′ Construction Tour: Miami Beach
Let’s take a tour through Miami Beach to take a look at the third quarter status of recently topped off buildings, ongoing construction, and recently started foundation work: Continue reading
Filed under BoB Articles, Miami Beach: SoFi, Miami Beach: South Beach, Surfside
Biscayne Blvd. Planned Resurfacing & Uptown’s Retailization
Image: Section of Biscayne Boulevard in the Upper East Side undergoing an extensive reconstruction.
Biscayne Boulevard is undergoing extensive work along the CBD, but the area north of the I-395 up to 36th street, represents a separate phase of Biscayne Boulevard’s enhancement, and is currently unaffected by the Boulevard’s improvement initiative. According to DDA records, the work in the Uptown section of Biscayne Boulevard is expected to begin sometime this year with completion slated for 2008. An area that is currently affected by resurfacing work is Biscayne Boulevard north of 55th Street where stores with US-1 frontage are facing bulldozers, barricades, and crawling auto traffic. There’s little doubt as to the negative effect that the resurfacing initiative is having on those businesses. As a retailer, you don’t want a construction site situated on your front door step. As a consumer, you don’t want to have to traverse through construction traffic, dust clouds, and fragmented roads unless you have to… Continue reading
Signs of Urban Life: Retail Oulook (Uptown’s Pros – M&E)
Image 1: An under utilized retail structure with blue awnings on NE 24th street and Biscayne Boulevard is shown in the foreground with new developments surrounding it.
Continued from Signs of Urban Life: Development Outlook (Uptown’s Woes)
Uptown is the largest of the three primary urban core segments (CBD and Brickell Village being the other two). It contains four unique sub-segments:
- Media and Entertainment District
- Edgewater
- Wynwood Arts District
- Midtown Miami & vicinity
Map: Uptown and its four subsegments are shown above. The Media and Entertainment District is shown in blue, the Midtown Miami vicinity is shown in yellow, Edgewater in green, and Wynwood in red. Continue reading
