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Miami Beach board greenlights eco-friendly townhouse project
Construction of the 3-unit development expected to begin in six months
A set of environmentally resilient townhouses may soon rise in the western section of South Beach.
On Tuesday morning, the Miami Beach Design Review Board approved plans for a three-unit townhouse project at 1425 Bay Road, where a circa-1947 three-bedroom single-family house once stood. The now-vacant 6,000-square-foot parcel is located just west of the 32-story Flamingo Resort and within the West Bayfront Overlay District, a 15-acre neighborhood of single-family homes, low-rise apartment and condo buildings.
The property also happens to be located in the once-proposed West of West Avenue, or WOW, district, a mixed-use community pushed by real estate developer Todd Glaser that was envisioned to be resistant to sea-level rise. Glaser withdrew his proposal in April after city planners criticized his request to allow restaurants and retail.
But Glaser or his partners aren’t involved in the townhouse project. Grayscale Partners, a Coconut Grove venture owned by Nathalie Manzano and Theodore Caplow that aims to build resilient homes, will build the townhomes. The 50-foot tall, 7,440-square-foot complex will have three rooftop solar arrays, one for each three-bedroom townhouse unit. Each of the 2,490-square-foot units will also have a six-space parking garage. Other project features include resilient landscaping, a rainwater retention system for irrigation, insulation and energy efficiency, nontoxic materials throughout, and automated ventilations, according to a letter of intent signed by Manzano and Caplow.
Caplow said he aims to start construction on the townhouse project in six months. Pricing for each of the townhouse units is to be determined, he added.
Caplow, an eco-engineer who helped build an innovation lab for the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, also said that this would be the first real estate project in South Florida that would be LEED and WELL certified. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is issued by the U.S. Green Building Council to energy efficient and environmentally friendly projects. WELL certification is issued to buildings by the International WELL Building Institute that “support and advance human health and wellness,” according to WellCertified.com.
“It [will help] the health of the planet and the person living there,” Caplow said.
Manzano and Caplow paid $1.3 million for the property at 1425 Bay Road in April 2018, a purchase that was partially financed by a $650,000 mortgage from Grove Bank & Trust.