Crescent Heights puts $64M price tag on school board’s downtown Miami site

Details have emerged on Crescent Heights’ proposal to build a skyscraper on land owned by the Miami-Dade County School Board in downtown Miami, including a $64 million purchase value. 

The Miami-based development company, led by Chairman and CEO Sonny Kahn, Managing Principal Russell Galbut and principal Bruce Menin, was the only firm to bid on the 1.13-acre site at 1370 Northeast 2nd Street by the Feb. 2 deadline.

The proposal, published online by the Next Miami, shows Crescent Heights affiliate 1370 NE 2nd LLC wants to build a 60-story tower with up to 1,000 residential units and 1,600 parking spaces. The developer already owns the adjacent land, bringing its total to just over 2 acres. The $64 million purchase price proposed in the documents breaks down to $40 million in cash and $24 million value for the more than 600 parking spaces Crescent Heights would give the school board. The developer valued the spaces at $40,000 a pop.

The lot is across the street from the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in the Arts & Entertainment District. The proposed tower would be part of a mixed-use project with retail and residential components.

The school board put the site up for bidding again last year. It would use the cash from the sale to help finance the construction of a new office building. The request for proposals also said bidders can build the school board up to 180,000 square feet of offices as payment, either at a different site or within any project built on the parking lot.

The school board issued RFPs for property it owns twice in 2011 and once in 2014. But a lack of interest from developers caused the board to close those rounds without any activity. [The Next Miami] – Katherine Kallergis