Marketing for the 4000 Alton Road luxury condominium project will soon commence, thanks to the approval of a series of design changes by a Miami Beach city board.
Those design changes, which were unanimously approved by the Miami Beach Design Review Board on Tuesday, included the approval of a three-foot height variance, allowing Mast Capital to construct an 88-foot tall, 162,395-square-foot transparent condominium designed by Ricardo Bofill Talier de Arquitectura, a Barcelona-based architecture firm.
Eddie Otero, Mast Capital’s director of development, said the 78 condominium units will be marketed for between $900 and $1000 per square foot by the fourth quarter of this year. Among the amenities include a gigantic pool and semi-private elevators for each unit.
Camilo Miguel of Mast Capital
Mast Capital is led by developer Camilo Miguel. Back in October 2014, Miguel bought the 1.87-acre parking lot by the I-195 ramp from Talmudic University, a Jewish Orthodox yeshiva, for $17.1 million.
Founded in 1974, Talmudic University bought the parking lot and the neighboring seven-story hotel in 2003 for $8 million and turned it into its main campus. The university was embarking on ambitious plans to build new dorms, apartments, and class rooms when BB&T sought to foreclose on the 2.3 acre parcel in 2011.
The foreclosure suits were eventually settled and Talmudic University still controls 1.1 acres of land on the north side of the site where the yeshiva plans to build a five-story addition on the site, according to a report from Planning Director Thomas Mooney. The project’s attorney, Graham Penn of Bercow Radell & Fernandez, even described Talmudic University as the condo developer’s “partner” during his presentation to the DRB.
Richard Seda, a Mid-Miami Beach resident who owns a home across the street from 4000 Alton Road, said the condo’s new design was much improved over previous plans unveiled by Mast Capital last year. Still, Seda said the project will amount to a wall of concrete in front of his house. In an effort to enhance views of Biscayne Bay, Seda insisted, the developers shifted its proposed building further west, blocking his own views in the process.
“We shouldn’t be penalized to increase the views of people who aren’t even living there yet,” he said.
But Penn pointed out that the design changes increased the setback for the proposed condo from the street from 25 feet to 50 feet. “This is a net benefit for the entire neighborhood,” the attorney said. Without that enhanced setback, “those units were going to be right in front of Mr. Seda’s house.”