New four-story hotel in North Beach wins design approval

A new boutique luxury hotel will soon be coming to the heart of Miami Beach’s North Beach neighborhood.

The Miami Beach Design Review Board on Tuesday unanimously approved plans for a new four-story hotel that will be built on four parcels at 8011-8035 Harding Avenue. Miami-based Spider, a full-service real estate investment company, will develop the hotel on land it acquired last year.   

Harding Excalibur LLC an entity controlled by Spider principal Andres Goldenberg paid $5 million for the 22,000-square foot-plot at 8011, 8017, 8021 and 8035 Harding Avenue. Spider plans to build a four-story, 44-room hotel with 22 parking spaces on the site.   

Three of the parcels contain so-called contributing structures in the North Shore National Register Historic District, including a noted Art Deco building built in 1937 by architect B. Kingston Hall.  

A Miami Beach Planning Board staff report notes that the hotel proposal incorporates the 1937 building known as the Casa D’Or Apartments in the overall design scheme of the project.  

The building has long been a North Beach landmark, known for its distinctive round entrance. Daniel Veitia, a member of the North Beach Steering Committee that has been involved in developing a master plan for the area says the developer and the project architect, Behar Font and Partners of Coral Gables, responded to community concerns that the architecturally significant structure be saved.

“They amended their hotel plans to be able to retain that structure,” said Veitia who also said the project will likely focus more attention on North Beach. “This will spur more development for hotel use and more retrofitting of existing buildings for hotel use,” he said.  

The 27,500-square-foot project includes an open lobby with multifunctional spaces, a breakfast area, and a rooftop sun deck with a pool. A press release issued by Goldenberg in April said, “North Beach has historically been known as a quiet community with single family homes and low-rise apartment buildings.   

The project is near the Terra Group’s 20-story, 64-unit luxury condo tower, Eighty Seven Park, at 8701 Collins Avenue.  

Spider also plans to build a 27-story, 56-unit tower called Spark in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood, also designed by Behar & Font.