The developer behind Miami’s most famous parking garage is planning a massive mixed-use complex designed by Danish starchitect Bjarke Ingels in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood, The Real Deal has learned.
A special area plan filed with the city of Miami reveals Robert Wennett’s Miami Produce Center LLC is proposing to build an eight-building complex with residential, office, retail, hotel and school components. Ingels’ firm, Bjarke Ingels Group, is designing the proposal and Kimley Horn is handling the traffic study.
Wennett has remained quiet on his plans for Allapattah. He’s best known for developing 1111 Lincoln Road, an award-winning, mixed-use garage designed by Herzog & de Meuron Architects. Wennett sold the building about a year ago to German investment fund Bayerische Versorgungskammer for $283 million — leaving many wondering what he would do next.
The latest plan covers the site between Northwest 21st and 22nd streets, and between Northwest 13th and 12th avenues, just west of the Santa Clara Metrorail station. Miami Produce Center LLC paid about $16 million for the 8.54-acre block at 2140 Northwest 12th Avenue, and 1243 and 1215 Northwest 21st streets in 2016, according to property records.
In recent years, the primarily industrial area, west of Wynwood and east of Miami International Airport, has attracted investors like Wennett, the Rubell family, Michael Simkins and Lyle Stern.
Earlier this week, Wennett’s LLC closed on $20.6 million in financing for the those properties, plus the warehouse at 1335 Northwest 21st Terrace, a block west of the other buildings. SunTrust Bank is the lender.
Wennett declined to comment, and Ingels could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Miami Produce Center proposal calls for T6-24-O zoning, which would allow for buildings of up to 48 stories with bonuses, 1,237 residential units and nearly 1,500 parking spaces. The developer is proposing 19-story interconnected buildings with about 1,200 residential units and 1,149 parking spaces.
The buildings would include about 860,000 square feet of residential space, 231,000 square feet of office, about 114,000 square feet of hotel, a 76,000-square-foot school and nearly 75,000 square feet of retail space.
In all, the project would total about 1.36 million square feet with ground floor retail and a school. Ingels, founder of BIG, also designed Grove at Grand Bay for Terra Group, a pair of twisting condominium towers in Coconut Grove. That development marked the first condo project for Ingels in the U.S.
Wennett still owns the penthouse at 1111 Lincoln Road, which he has on the market with the Jills from Coldwell Banker for $34 million.