Lincoln Road redesign would cost $43M, nearly double city budget

The updated plans for the Lincoln Road streetscape project would cost $43 million, nearly double the city’s existing $22 million budget. 

James Corner Field Operations, the New York-based architecture firm designing the improvements, tweaked its plans for Lincoln Road to incorporate input from restaurant and business owners on the popular pedestrian-only retail street in Miami Beach. Updated designs include increased green space near Washington Avenue, according to the Miami Herald.

New renderings show the black and white logo inspired by Lincoln Road’s piano key floor as part of the Euclid Oval.

The newspaper reported that the city plans to cut costs by modifying the designs and to find more money when the budget is renegotiated in the summer. James Corner, which designed the High Line in New York City and is also working on the Underline linear park and trail in Miami-Dade County, was paid $500,000 to redesign Lincoln Road. The firm unveiled its first ideas about two years ago, which included standardizing cafe tables and umbrellas, creating one walking path on each side and repaving the road.

James Corner, for example, adapted its initial design to make room for more cafe tables after restaurant owners complained that too much was being cut.

Business owners concerns’ include construction timing, cost and phasing of the project. In Coral Gables, the $21 million streetscape project currently under construction has hurt business along Miracle Mile and Giralda Street and is delayed following drainage issues and an abrupt change in project managers.

Lincoln Road is among the top retail streets in the country. A report by Cushman & Wakefield last year showed asking rents have stabilized at $325 per square foot, which makes the street the fourth-most expensive retail strip in the country.

The city of Miami Beach doesn’t plan to break ground on the master plan until May 2018, according to the Herald. [Miami Herald] – Katherine Kallergis