City National Bank Building's New Owner Has Big Vision

The new owner of the City National Bank property in North Beach has a big vision for the two surrounding blocks and he wants to partner with the City to make it happen. Miami Beach Commissioners next week will consider his proposal to redevelop the area around the CNB property, which is on the south side of 71^st Street, and the surrounding blocks between Byron and Harding Avenues.
 
The owner, North Beach Town Center Development LLC, an affiliate of Pacific Star Capital, acquired the parcels adjacent to the CNB Building “to develop a cohesive and transformative project for the North Beach community,” according to Neisen Kasdin, the owner’s representative. “This two block swath of land in the heart of the Town Center represents a golden opportunity to inject new investment into the area and create a vibrant activity node.”
 
The proposal includes the following, according to a letter Kasdin sent to Commissioner Joy Malakoff:

• Preservation and revitalization of the 3-story building at 326 71^st Street, the original home of City National Bank (the “CNB Building”), to be re-occupied in part by City National.
• Redevelopment of the lot immediately south of CNB Building as a park open to the public.
• Demolition of 6 story building adjacent to the CNB Building, to combine with surrounding surface parking lots to the south owned by both Owner and the City, for development of a 12 story, 140 unit rental residential apartment building.
• Development of the apartment building will include ground-floor retail spaces on 71^st Street and ... a “paseo-type” interior street open to the public stretching from Harding to Abbott Avenue.
• Redevelopment of Owner’s properties between Abbott and Byron Avenues, along with a City-owned parking lot, into a thriving retail center, where Owner is targeting a grocer as anchor tenant to occupy approximately 30,000 square feet on the ground floor.
• Development west of Abbott Avenue will include small “incubator” retail along 71^st Street to foster a pedestrian-friendly environment and promote local businesses, along with two floors of innovative work spaces or retail above the ground level, where the Owner is targeting large national credit retailers.
• Redevelopment of properties between Abbott and Byron Avenues would also include a parking garage with approximately 360 spaces, to serve retail tenants and to replace the 83 parking spaces lost from City-owned parking lots in connection with the Project.

The letter requests the City convey the two surface parking lots between Byron and Harding Avenues as part of the project. In turn, the City will get 83 public parking spaces in the planned garage, gain approximately 280 more parking spaces than would be required by City Code to be built under the project, a new public park, and new tax revenue from the development on what are now tax-exempt City-owned lots.

The owner also is looking toward the Byron Carlyle Theater and a 14-space surface park lot directly to the west of his project, as another opportunity. Identified in the North Beach Master Plan as a "catalyst project" for Town Center, Kasdin wrote, "The Owner believes the BCT site could be an excellent opportunity to stretch the vibrancy of new retail activity created by the Project westward along 71st Street, and to construct new civic space to house the needs of the City (artistic, cultural, etc.)." He says his client would be interested in partnering with the City on the Byron Carlyle site and "we would suggest that the City consider putting these propertiers out for bid to help continue revitalization efforts for the North Beach Town Center."

Kasdin also represents Silvia Coltrane whose hotel project between 71st and 72nd Streets on Collins was the first new development approved under the North Beach Master Plan.
 
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