North Bay Approves 7M-SF Development on Biscayne Bay’s Treasure Island
By Chava Gourarie October 13, 2022 1:43 pm
reprints
The North Bay Village Council voted 3-2 Wednesday to greenlight a 7.3 million-square-foot development plan from Sunbeam Properties on Treasure Island, one of two South Florida islands that comprise the municipality.
The plan covers a 12.9-acre site on Treasure Island along the 79th Street Causeway, which connects the northern end of Miami Beach to Miami over Biscayne Bay. The site is made up of 10 parcels along both sides of the Causeway, with several along the waterfront, according to documents filed with North Bay Village.
Sunbeam is the real estate firm of the Ansin family, owner of local television station WSVN Channel 7, whose headquarters is part of the development site. The station will be moved to accommodate the design, which calls for eight to 10 towers, the tallest of which would reach 650 feet, the South Florida Business Journal first reported.
The approved plan includes 1,936 residential units, of which 5 percent will be workforce housing; 200,000 square feet of office space; 670,000 square feet of commercial space; a hotel; a marina; and 84,366 square feet of public space. The plan includes a waterfront pedestrian boardwalk lined by restaurants and shops.
The Village Council agreed to amend the zoning to allow for towers up to 450 feet in height south of the Causeway and 650 feet north of it — up from the current caps of 240 and 340 feet. As of right, Sunbeam could have built 18 smaller towers on the site, but preferred to build fewer and taller towers.
Andy Ansin, the CEO of Sunbeam and WLVN, took the reins from his father Edmund Ansin after Edmund’s death in 2020. The family had been acquiring properties for decades, and clinched the assemblage with the purchase of two waterfront parcels next to the WLVN headquarters for $56.5 million in 2020 and 2021.
Some residents of the town — which has a population of 8,300 — were opposed to the project because of its scale, which would dwarf anything else on Treasure Island.
The addresses for the site are 1400, 1401, 1415, 1600 and 1601 79th Street Causeway, and 155 and 1624 North Bay Causeway.
Chava Gourarie can be reached at cgourarie@commercialobserver.com.
