Aimco, Newgard and Melo Each Seek to Expand Miami Developments
Three proposed towers would add 1,400 residential units in Miami’s center
By Julia Echikson February 14, 2023 6:56 pm
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More is more for Aimco, Newgard Development Group and the Melo Group in Miami. All are seeking to expand their properties, proposals that the city’s Urban Development Review Board will hear Wednesday.
Aimco has proposed its fourth rental tower in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood, on a half-acre site it assembled between 510 and 534 NE 34th Street in 2021, paying $8.2 million in total.
The Denver-based REIT filed plans to build a mixed-use property with 204 residential units and 910 square feet of commercial space, along with a 301-spot automated parking lot. The site is across 34th Street from the waterfront Hamilton on the Bay apartment building, which Aimco bought for $81 million in 2020.
The proposed building, called 1 Edgewater, is part of a much larger development that the development has planned along 34th Street, where it has assembled land spanning 5.41 acres. 1 Edgewater will be the third phase of a “multi-phase,” full-block development “immediately due west on Northeast 34th Street and potentially property to the north,” according to the proposal filed with the UDB. “The next phase is still under design but will be submitted shortly,” Aimco’s letter added.
Also along 34th Street, Aimco has previously proposed building a 60-story apartment tower. Per the most recent filing, the company disclosed that it wants to close the section of 34th Street, which ends at Biscayne Bay, to cars, and create a 15,000-square-foot public park, which would likely anchor the larger project.
In addition to its 34th Street megaproject, the REIT has already filed proposals to develop two other towers nearby at 3333 Biscayne Boulevard. With the Beitel Group last year, it paid $45 million for a nearly 3-acre parcel.
The lawyer representing Aimco, Edward Martos of Weiss Serota Helfman Cole + Bierman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Aimco isn’t alone in wanting to expand a planned development.
Just two weeks after breaking ground on a condo tower in Brickell, Newgard Development Group wants to erect another one on the same site.
The second tower would rise 43 stories and include 420 units. Last year, the Miami-based developer paid $50.5 million for the 1.6-acre site at 99 SW Seventh Street, which faces the Miami River, just north of the Brickell City Centre complex. The developer secured $170 million for the first, 44-story skyscraper, called Lofty, before commencing construction in January.
Dubbed the One Brickell Riverfront, the two-tower project is set to span 1.2 million square feet with 784 residential units, ground-floor retail, 13,170 square feet for offices, and a 919-spot parking garage. A representative for Newgard has yet to provide comment.
In Downtown Miami, the Melo Group wants to replicate an apartment building it completed two years ago.
The Miami-based developer, led by the Melo family, filed plans for a 54-story rental property, called Downtown 6, which would feature 824 units and 2,427 square feet of commercial space. The firm bought the 0.8-acre parcel, located between 530 NE First Avenue and 46 NE First Street, for $18.3 million.
The proposed tower would rise on the same block as Downtown 5, a 52-story building with over 1,000 apartments, which the developer completed in 2021. A lawyer representing the firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Julia Echikson can be reached at jechikson@commercialobserver.com.
