35-story rental tower proposed for Hallandale Beach, as city booms with development

MG 100 Tower, a proposed mixed-use development on Federal Highway in Hallandale Beach, will go before the city commission for approval next month, amid a flurry of new development.

Under proposal is a 35-story tower with 350 apartments and roughly 10,000 square feet of commercial space at 100 South Federal Highway. 

The project received a chilly reception at the city’s planning and zoning review committee last week, where it was deemed to have insufficient parking and a building height out of scale with the surrounding neighbors, among other things. Nevertheless, the board recommended that the proposal be sent to the city commission for a final decision, which could take place as early as July 6.

The director of MG 100 Tower is Enrique Manhard, a Uruguayan investor.  

There were over 2,000 residential units under review by Hallandale Beach’s planning and zoning division as of May 2016. “There is going to be more and more development in Hallandale Beach as Miami Beach gets built out and/or land prices (become) sky high,” Jack McCabe, CEO of McCabe Research and Consulting in Deerfield Beach told The Real Deal.

The $4.2 million price tag for the 1.47-acre site that MG 100 Tower bought in October 2013, “reflects the peak of the market,” McCabe said. By asking for so many units, the developers/land owners are trying to maximize their investment, he said. Land costs, spread out over 350 units, would allow a landlord to make rents more affordable than those at many of the other apartment developments being built in the area today, says McCabe.

Still, the path to approval of the development may be difficult. At the June 8 meeting, the planning and zoning board did three things, according to Keven Klopp, Hallandale Beach’s director of development services: It recommended against approving the zoning that the project would need to do 350 units and against the conditional use that would allow residential on the site, which is currently zoned for business. But it recommended approval of the development with conditions, including a maximum height of 25 stories and a parking ratio that conforms to the current city code for buildings in the RAC (regional activity center) where the project is located. The RAC ordinance is designed to promote mixed-use and transit-oriented development.  

The RAC ordinance has a height limit of 20 stories as well as a limit of the number of units per acre, which is to 50, although developers may be able to earn up to 90 units per acre, Klopp said. Still, that number would be way below the land owners’ request for 232 units per acre. If they have to adhere to the 90 unit per acre limit, they would only be able to build 135 units.

MG 100 Tower is vested, which means that the entity has the right to be considered under the old rules that were in effect before the RAC ordinance was passed in November 2014. But, as the land owner’s attorney, Hope Calhoun, pointed out at the meeting, her clients’ right to be vested expires on July 8. Changing the building design now would be a burden for the land owners who live out of the country, she said. MG 100 may, however, be able to seek an extension of the vesting at a July 6 city commission meeting.