ULI22MIAMI:Conference Recap

ULI22MIAMI : Conference Recap

OVERVIEW

Throughout our conference

I asked people to offer their perspectives on Wynwood, Brightline, Brickell City Centre, and Miami World Center.

Miami seems like an overnight success, but it’s been decades of persistence. Finally, now it has momentum.

Shops that opened up 10 years ago have weathered the COVID crisis. Hopefully, they’re here to stay. It seems that way; I recognize many shops from my last visit, and it appears enough new retail is getting filled at a good pace.

Wynwood benefits from its location within Miami. It’s likely to have its own stop along Brightline.

Locals frequently reminded us of things that set Miami apart. ‘Wynwood is the ‘new’ Silicon Valley.’ Miami Mayor Francis Suarez was an early promoter of block chain and cryptocurrency. Still, a lot of Miami’s recent Sam Bankman Fried-related crypto angst was satirically demostrated during Art Basel. Miami’s Financial Industry is growing into a behemoth.

Miami is a major international data node for global cable communications, and has established industries in various related services.

Geopolitically, Miami is wellpositioned to benefit from West Coast supply-chain disruptions. While it’s not exactly apples to apples to compare the Port of Long Beach with the Port of Miami, Miami has its own supplychain vision.

During the 2017 Trade Wars, the Long Beach Port backed up. Various industries were disrupted. At that moment, several companies saw an opportunity to advocate for a shift of sourcing upstream goods from some Asianbased companies to Central and South American based companies that would then use the Port of Miami.

Miami was cited as an emerging Tier 1 market, with a unique set of local market demand. Class A office space (new buildings coming available now) and more RTZ residential. Florida at large was praised for its stable growth. “Each market’s demands are unique.” – The penciling deals is likely to shift, so expect disruptions at the finish line, but full steam from the start.

Wynwood is a 520-acre neighborhood without a NIMBY in sight (conditions apply).

Art Basel Miami celebrated 20 years, and the Wynwood Walls are now 13 years old. Wynwood has been showing real follow through. Large scale residential projects are renting.

Wynwood has well established partners that ensure the region has a bright future. The Business Improvement Distr ict is well-organized and progress-oriented.

As of this visit, more than 11 apartment buildings were coming to market, approximately 2,500 multifamily units.

2022 #ARTBASEL @ WYNWOOD GARAGE

Retail Space: 20,500 sq. ft. Office Space: 30,000 sq. ft. Parking Spaces: 428 Completed: 2019 Wynwood’s culture is in constant emergence. Entrepreneurs and influencers use art, food, and music to voice themselves—Wynwood has become their platform.

We arrived at the closing of Art Basel and parked at the famed Wynwood Garage. Art Basel has been a catalyst and engine for a rapidly emerging and evolving culture in Wynwood. The presence of a Midrise parking structure in the midst of an “underutilized area” speaks a lot about the sudden trajectory this neighborhood is experiencing.

It’s hard to take a picture in Wynwood without catching a crane. Residents of Wynwood seem to be transplants from some other urban environment, comfortable with curbing their dogs and easily finding the service section of the building with its standpipes exposed to graffiti.

Florida has a long and contentious history with “rail.” During our meeting it was pointed out that in Europe the rails are owned by the government and the cars are run by companies. In the US, the rails are owned privately, and Amtrak operates inter-city services.

Brightline began as All Aboard Florida in 2012. By 2014, plans were drafted for Miami Central.

In its final design, Miami Central has 180,000 sf commercial, 800 apartments, and 300,000 sf of office.

Brightline and its attorneys petitioned the city to develop new zoning language for Miami allowing for over 500 units per acre.

Rapid Transit Zoning (RTZ) is meant to incentivize denser development in more resilient and (somewhat relatively more) affordable communities. Much of the surrounding property was assembled by agencies related to Brightline.

Brightline considers itself a real estate developer with benevolent ambitions to develop rail networks in several urban clusters across the US. Brightline credits its business structure and strategy for rapid execution.

Brightline invests as needed to supplement RSX and FEC rails. Support from Tallahassee has made negotiations for rail easements that enable Brightline to serve Florida passengers achievable.

While Orlandoans remain skeptical, ULI conference attenders were reassured that the only hurdle left for Brightline between Tampa and Orlando is how we work the Orange County Convention Center, Universal Studios AND Disney into the line.

Never would I ever go to those 3 places in one day, but supposedly If I want to take the Brightline to Tampa, one day I will, but only after I go to MCO. Cynicism aside, 500 units per acre density is “something Florida hasn’t seen yet.”

Brightline seems set on connecting Florida cities with fast rail services, and funding that effort through real estate development.

Brightline's model is to make sound real estate investments and transactions in order to make investments that increase ridership.

Brightline expects to record a net profit within a year of operating to Orlando. All of this requires confidence that in Florida, environmentally resilient development is achievable.

Developers we spoke to all praised Miami’s high performance building standards and advocated that their guidelines be adopted statewide, to avert Florida’s impending insurance crisis.

THE UNDERLINE

The Underline is a significant urban art and park connectivity project; it’s Miami’s take on the Highline. Underline founder Meg Daly has become somewhat of a patron saint for better civic space. Today the Underline is activated and engages the neighborhoods surrounding Miami’s elevated rails. The Underline’s phase 1 pilot section has now been in operation for nearly a year, and coordinators and the vision team have already found ways to help the system better serve communities.

Brickell City Centre is a large mixeduse complex consisting of two residential high-rise towers, two office buildings, a high-rise hotel, and an interconnected five-story shopping mall and lifestyle center covering 9 acres (36,000 m2) located in the Brickell district of Downtown Miami, Florida. Situated at the junction of Miami Ave and Eighth St, it spans up to five blocks to the west of Brickell Ave and to the south of the Miami River. Contrary to the name, the development is not in the traditional downtown Miami city center, but in the more recently redeveloped financial district of Brickell. The retail shopping and lifestyle center is operated by Simon Malls.

• 9.1 acres along South Miami Ave between Eighth St and Sixth St

• 5.4 million square feet of office, residential, hotel, retail and entertainment space, in addition to a two-level underground parking garage that spans seven acres below the property

• An environmentally progressive CLIMATE RIBBON architectural feature providing innovative climate control so shoppers can walk in comfort between stores and restaurants

• Incorporates key transportation centers with the Miami

Brickell City Centre, which cost an estimated $1.05 was completed in 2016. It was first proposed real estate bubble of the 2000s, but then the economic downturn following Great Recession. It was revived in 2012 with enough acreage to qualify for Special Area Plan (SAP) zoning with construction beginning by year's end. The hotel and residential towers, as well as some office space, opened in 2016. Phased retail openings started in November 2016.

Wikipedia:

Miami WorldCenter is a large mixed-use development under construction led by principals Falcone and Nitin Motwani, spanning several blocks in the Park West neighborhood of Miami, Florida, just north of downtown. may include over 25 acres of land, with a convention center, hotel space, residential, as well as copious street level retail and large anchor tenant space, such as Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s.

The hotel and convention center are planned to be part of the same 55 story building. The hotel will be very large with 1,800 rooms over the approximately 600,000 square feet (55,742 m2) convention center.

One proposed residential building known as the Miami Worldcenter Signature Tower may rise to the maximum 749 feet (228 m) above sea level permitted in that area. The project will connect with the Brightline higher-speed rail system’s MiamiCentral Station. Additionally, the Freedom Tower Metromover station was renovated in 2021 and 2022.

Taubman announced that it will not be developing an enclosed regional mall as demand moved away from enclosed malls. Instead the plans were changed to reflect an open-air development better suited for Miami's sunny weather.

On 14 January 2019, the first development at Miami Worldcenter, the Caoba apartment tower, was opened. Paramount Miami Worldcenter opened in 2019.

Location: Miami, USA

Type: Commercial, Housing, Offices, Parking

Partners: Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Christine Binswanger (Partner in Charge)

Project Team: Jason Frantzen (Associate), Mark Loughnan (Associate), Nils Sanderson, Charles Stone (Associate), Karl Blette, Christopher Haas, Yong Huang, Yuichi Kodai, Paul Martinez, Mehmet Noyan, Caro van der Venne, Savannah Lamal

Client: MBeach1 and Robert Wennett, Miami Beach, USA

Client Representative: Donald Kipnis, Development Service Solutions LLC, Miami, USA

Architect of Record: Charles H. Benson & Associate Architects, Miami Beach, USA

Structural Engineering: Optimus Structural Design LLC, Miami, USA

General Contractor: G.T. McDonald Enterprises, Inc., Miami, USA

Photography: Rasmus Hjortshøj

Herzog

& de Meuron

1111 Lincoln Road

2005–2010

The mixed use development called 1111 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach comprises four different parcels. An existing building, the former Suntrust building, is renewed since the bank has left the building to be accommodated around the corner.

A mixed use structure for parking, retail and a private residence becomes attached to the Suntrust building. A two-story building with the relocated bank on the ground floor and four residences on the upper floor faces Alton Road, with a landscaped alley and surface parking lot behind it.

A car park is a public facility, like a train station or an airport, where people change from one mode of transportation to another.

Lincoln Road Mall is a very alive, urban experience, a pedestrian shopping street where small-scale restaurants and bars serve their customers day and night, all year round, under lush trees and stars. 1111 is a new place for people to leave their cars so they can hang out on Lincoln Road Mall, go see a movie or have a swim in the ocean.

To create another standard parking structure on a retail base, with a façade that hides the ugliness of what is being stored inside, and a recessed penthouse on top would not have answered the urban requirements of this place. Seeing the potential of the project, Miami Beach authorities courageously approved more height on this corner, but not more FAR. The additional height granted is used for higher ceilings, more air, panoramic views

The nature of Lincoln Road was the one source of inspiration for the architecture of the car park, its being connected to the massive, closed Suntrust office building the other.

The garage is a fully open concrete structure. Ceiling heights vary between standard parking height and double or even triple height, in order to accommodate other programs, permanently as well as temporarily.

A retail unit and a private residence are located on the upper levels, and the structure can be used for parties, photo or film shoots, fashion shows, concerts or other social or commercial activities, offering amazing views as the backdrop for the stage. An unenclosed, sculptural stair in the center of the building makes pedestrian circulation in the garage a panoramic, ceremonial experience, as is moving through the building in a car.

The private residence that is nested on a mezzanine of the top floor of the car park spills out to terraces; it is folded into the structure yet screened by excessive landscaping. The terraces also bridge across to the roof of the existing building. The structure is the architecture. The car park is an organism made up of a family of concrete slabs, deployed as floor plates, columns and ramps. The location and form of these elements result from a series of forces acting upon each other, a complex overlapping of site and building code requirements, combined with program choices and the aspiration to both integrate with Lincoln Road Mall and to formulate its beginning at the corner of Alton Road.

1111 includes the transformation of the massive Suntrust Bank building from the 1970s into a publicly accessible place. The lowest floor plate of the car park cuts away a large part of the ground floor of this building, creating a fully glazed, kinked storefront all along Lincoln Road.

The new structure slips under and opens up the heavy concrete building for 16 tenants who bring new brands to Lincoln Road Mall, from Y3 to Osklen to Taschen to Nespresso, from clothes to books to coffee and so forth.

A new entry and an open, lit staircase in one of the existing corner towers of the Suntrust building indicate the new rooftop restaurant, which offers exquisite views over the Art Deco District and the Miami Beach skyline alongside the Atlantic Ocean.

The new Suntrust Bank is a kind of “architecture with no architects”- it tries not to make an architectural statement towards Alton Road, next to the rather expressive car park. It is a two-story stucco building with the bank on the ground floor and four identical, introverted houses on the upper floor.

As the site has no views to offer, the scenery for the apartments is created by two carefully landscaped courtyards, and the façade expresses nothing more than the stairs behind a white ornamental lattice.

Finally, Lincoln Road Mall itself has been redesigned between 1111 and the cinema across the street. Before the transformation, this last block was still open for automobile traffic.

The full width of the street is paved in black and white stripes of natural stone, from façade to façade, creating a generous common plaza with groups of trees of substantial age and size.

Restaurants are limited in number in order to keep a large area of “commerce free” public spaceinstead of chairs and tables there are benches and water features inviting visitors to sit down and relax.

A glass pavilion by Dan Graham raises the status of the plaza to yet another level.

ULI22MIAMI : Conference Recap