Boutique condo in South-of-Fifth gets design approval

UPDATE Aug. 2, 5 p.m. The trend towards smaller buildings continues in Miami Beach’s red-hot South-of Fifth neighborhood.  

On Tuesday, the city’s design review board gave design approval for the construction of a new five-story building on two combined lots to be built by TBD Group at 912-918 Fourth Street. The developer is led by Tamara Despujols and Bernadette Despujols, records show.

Bernadette Despujols told The Real Deal that she and her sister, who are both architects, designed the building, which will be called Araya.

The new project will replace a one-story structure in the low-rise neighborhood but it will only be 45 feet tall.  The new building will hold four luxury condos.  

Rodrigo Carrion of DN’A Design and Architecture said two four-bedroom units facing Fourth Street will be about 2,000 square feet and two three-bedroom rear-facing units will be about 1,400 square-feet.   

Carrion said the building would also have a rooftop pool terrace and rear parking accessed through an alley. He said the building will have 23-foot setbacks in the rear and five-foot setbacks in the front of the building. All of the units will have large balconies.

Carrion said the building fits in with a trend towards smaller boutique projects in the South-0f-Fifth neighborhood telling the board, “Our client wants something a little different,” and that with only four units in the building, nearly all of the building’s space is designed so that “unit owners will get full benefits.”