The family that owns Las Vegas Cuban Cuisine, a group of popular Cuban restaurants, is looking to redevelop its location in North Beach into co-living.
Las Vegas Beach Corp. filed plans for a 24,265-square-foot, 55-foot building at 6970 Collins Avenue. The project, designed by Antoniazzi Architecture, would have 21 co-living units with an average size of 546 square feet, plus 3,500 square feet of restaurant space.
Las Vegas Beach Corp., led by Antonio, Nilda and Carmen Vilariño, will go before the Miami Beach Design Review Board next Tuesday.
Property records show the nearly 3,000-square-foot building that’s currently on the site was originally built in 1935.
The building falls within the North Beach Town Center area, which means that it’s part of a 10-block district where property owners can now build twice as much as they were previously allowed. The city approved the voter-mandated upzoning in November, more than a year after residents endorsed the zoning increase.
The area consists of retail plazas, vacant lots and apartment buildings between Indian Creek Drive, Dickens Avenue, 72nd Street, Collins Avenue, and 69th Street. As part of the upzoning, the city gave property owners 21 months from the date of approval to obtain building permits in order to avoid a public benefit charge of $3 per square foot to build above 125 feet.
Other developers are moving forward with their projects in North Beach. Alex Blavatnik and Sandor Scher recently got the green light to build more hotel rooms at their North Beach project in exchange for a park for the city. The Miami Beach City Commission unanimously approved a development agreement that will enable the Ocean Terrace developers to build 110 hotel rooms instead of 78 rooms. In exchange, Blavatnik and Scher agreed to invest $15 million to convert street segments and a parking lot surrounding the city block, located east of Collins Avenue, into a public oceanfront park designed by Raymond Jungles.
In July, the Miami Beach Planning Board unanimously approved a land swap between the city and Miami Beach developer Robert Finvarb for a 220-foot-tall mixed-use apartment complex in North Beach.