The new application is on the agenda for the June 1 meeting of the Design Review Board (DRB). It seeks approval for another residential tower at the northern end of the Flamingo Point development which is located on 16 acres between 14th and 16th Streets on the west side of Bay Road fronting Biscayne Bay. Three towers and a five-story mixed-use parking garage and townhouses sit on the site now, but the owners have approximately 100,000 sq. ft. of unused floor area that can be built. [Update: The item was continued to the July 6 meeting.]
The current height limit in the area is 140 feet. In the DRB application, attorney Michael Larkin of Bercow Radell Fernandez Larkin & Tapanes wrote, “[T]he Applicant’s proposed design does not require any variances or otherwise deviate from the requirements of the code.” Last June, AIMCO proposed a 300-foot, 24-story luxury tower on the site and sought an amendment to the City’s Land Development Regulations to accommodate it. Commissioner Ricky Arriola originally sponsored the item but has since pulled his sponsorship. The amendment has proceeded as a private application without a Commission sponsor. It has not yet been heard by the Commission, but the Planning Board recently recommended against it.
The new proposal which is moving ahead concurrently includes 34 luxury units with a mix of 2, 3, and 4-bedroom residences, a rooftop pool deck, and “resilient landscaping intended to reduce heat island effects and capture stormwater before it reaches ground level,” according to the application. If the Commission does not approve the zoning change to allow the taller tower, AIMCO will proceed with this proposal, Larkin confirmed with RE:MiamiBeach.
“Despite the addition of the new units to Flamingo Point within the New Tower” on-going renovations to the existing North Tower “substantially reduce the overall unit count within Flamingo Point,” Larkin wrote in the application. “The reduction in unit count allows for larger, more family-friendly unit sizes, which creates less impact on the surrounding neighborhood and City infrastructure. All told from the existing conditions in 2017, the Applicant is reducing the overall unit count by 206 units.”
Details of the DRB applications are here.
Renderings: Stantec
