miami new park west plan? (Miami Beach, West Palm Beach: real estate, apartments, mover)

[money23]

i have all the information of miami parkwest it's take 20 years but its biggest plan in usa i hope this plan work for miami thisis a true urban master plan

cbs4.com - Miami City Panel Puts Off Decision On New 'World Center' (http://cbs4.com/local/miami.world.center.2.820335.html - broken link)

Huge Miami Worldcenter project heads to planning board - 09/16/2008 - MiamiHerald.com (broken link)

Miami city planners delay vote on 25-acre project - South Florida Business Journal:

Marc Roberts Video Player (broken link)

Marc Roberts Companies.

also, the mortgage on the pending final $90 million dollar piece to worldcenter currently owned by Africa Israel has been extended to 6/09, probably indicating that they expect to close soon.

At a time when banks and builders are struggling for survival, two developers are seeking government approval for Miami Worldcenter -- a nine-block, 25-acre mixed used project that would be Miami's biggest urban development in years.

On Wednesday, the developers, Boca Raton-based Art Falcone, a one-time suburban home builder, and Marc Roberts, a former sports agent who lives in Jupiter, are scheduled to go before Miami's Planning Advisory Board, the first step in the approval process for their project.

City commissioners are expected to vote on the massive development later this fall.

The project, which would be located between the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts and the central business district, calls for a mix of high-rise offices, hotels, shops, restaurants, entertainment and conference venues, schools and eventually residences -- all built within a framework of plazas and broad sidewalks.

The proposal comes at a time when there is a renewed desire for city living and the process of revitalizing downtown Miami is underway, but also runs smack into the current economic downturn when credit markets have seized up, lenders have gone under and many developers are struggling to stay afloat.

''We certainly agree that the market in its current form is challenging,'' said Nitin Motwani, managing director of the project. ``But we know real estate goes in cycles and will turn around, especially in a dynamic international gateway city like Miami.''

The developers have already spent $100 million on the project and that will grow as they close on parcels currently under contract in the nine-block area.

Getting financing in the current environment will be challenging, but Motwani said the developers plan to seek investment partners soon. Even if other partners come in, he said, Falcone and Roberts will remain the master developers of the project.

''What this [difficult] market situation has allowed us to do is that we have not been rushed,'' Motwani said. ``It has allowed us to . . . work more closely with the city and county, to understand what they want and what we want.''

The project, to be built in multiple phases over many years, would include upward of 12 million square feet of new construction -- about the size of eight Dadeland Malls. The first phase would include the hotel, shopping, restaurant and entertainment components.

But what will characterize the development, says its architect Howard Elkus, is its pedestrian focus and emphasis on public spaces.

The plan includes a roughly half-acre park, a traffic circle like New York City's Columbus Circle and a walking strip similar to Miami Beach's Lincoln Road. The developers envision that decaying Northeast First Avenue will achieve the ''urban role, presence, and spirit'' of Paris' Champs Elysees, according to plans filed with the city.

Today the Park West area is largely parking lots and one of the most run-down parts of downtown.

Falcone and Roberts are betting their development will be the missing piece in a downtown that includes the Brickell financial district and central business district as jobs centers and cultural and entertainment venues such as AmericanAirlines Arena, the performing arts center and the proposed art and science museums on the waterfront.

Three Metromover stops are within the development area, and the city's proposed streetcar line would bisect it.

''It's hard to imagine a site that is more central or better served by a diversity of assets,'' said Elkus, the project's Boston-based architect who has designed many large urban mixed-use projects, including West Palm Beach's City Place and Victory Park in Dallas.

For nearly two years Elkus and Michael Cohen, both of the firm Elkus Manfredi, quietly master-planned the site and met with local politicians and planners, collectively making more than three dozens visits to South Florida since January 2007.

Cohen said it's ''extremely rare'' to find such a large assemblage of land within a major urban center.

Real estate analyst Michael Cannon said developing such a large, multiyear project is a tricky balancing act. Each phase must not only be completed as a viable, stand-alone project but also integrated with future phases and the existing downtown infrastructure. Another important factor, he said, is whether the master plan has the flexibility to adapt to changing market conditions.

Worldcenter's developers are asking for not only approval of a special zoning district that binds each of the nine blocks to strict development and design standards while allowing for flexibility on how each building is used but also a contract that would cement the deal for 20 years.

The developers say such an arrangement would give assurances about what each building would look like while allowing latitude to adjust to market conditions such as whether shops and hotels would be more viable at a given time than condos. ''To make this type of commitment time-wise and financially, we need to feel comfortable we can execute the plan through it's entirety,'' said Motwani, who moved to Miami this year to oversee operations.

The Worldcenter project attempts to follow Miami 21, the proposed city-wide rezoning that stipulates screening of garages so pedestrians don't see pipes and other infrastructure, and storefronts that are 70 percent glass, so passersby aren't confronted with stark walls. Incentives also would be offered for using green building techniques and for constructing affordable housing within the nine blocks.

Roberts and Falcone, who made about $1 billion when he sold his home-building company Transeastern to TOUSA, began acquiring land in Park West

More detailed renderings have also been released, but the Miami Herald has only put up thumbnails of them.

Also today, the preliminary plans have shown up on a construction bidding site:

http://www.constructionjournal.com/p...+-+Master+Plan

Note that the sub-categories include educational uses:

Apartments/Condominiums, Convention/Exhibit Center, Elementary School, Food/Beverage Service, Hotel/Motel, Middle/Senior High School, Office, Park/Playground, Pre-School/Daycare, RetailFor comparison, this project is 15 times the size of Met 3

Met 3 = 800,000 square feet
Worldcenter =12,000,000+ square feet
Park West Metromover Station
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3277/...be55889a_b.jpg
The Miami World Center master plan goes before the planning board on the 17th. This doesn't deal with any of the individual buildings, but rather with the project as a whole and how the streets and open spaces will be configured.

Master Plan:
http://egov.ci.miami.fl.us/Legistarw...ents/45631.pdf
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3194/...9ac35424_b.jpghttp://farm4.static.flickr.com/3063/...92d11974_o.jpg

It looks to me like it is basically Miami21. Looks like the City worked with the developer to have it built to Miami21 standards.

[tallrick]

It can join the likes of Interama, the Omni and winners like Bayside and the miami arena. Investors beware, money will be lost here. A 1/2 acre park? Are you kidding me! We call that a yard in suburbia in the United states. This is just an excuse to destroy more of old Miami and replace it with new vacant buildings.

[big mean bear]

Good info. You are not that bad after all!

[TannerMan]

Destroy old Miami? Have you any idea of whats currently there? Parking lots and two abondoned buildings! This development sounds amazing.

[tallrick]

It will be amazing when the homeless take up residence in the public areas. We all know that Miami's problems cannot be fixed with development. What is needed is a more business-friendly climate with lower costs. Building apartments and stores in a lousy area is not going to be self-sustaining.

[money23]

miami need new life this is part of new life and good one but this is a better life one

[TannerMan]

Where are you from?

[money23]

miami

[kevinkagy]

This is a wonderful project that would revitalize Park West!

[planetsurf]

Originally Posted by tallrick

It will be amazing when the homeless take up residence in the public areas. We all know that Miami's problems cannot be fixed with development. What is needed is a more business-friendly climate with lower costs. Building apartments and stores in a lousy area is not going to be self-sustaining.

True, but ... it's a chicken/egg thing.
If you have a great business without "safe" affordable neighborhoods for workers, that won't work.
If you have great housing but no business, that won't work either.

There HAS to be a balance.