A rezoning in Dania Beach could spark residential development of an 11-acre block along a canal, across the street from the sprawling Dania Pointe mixed-use development.
The Dania Beach City Commission voted Monday on second reading to change the zoning for the rectangular block along Bryan Road. Miami-based developer Asi Cymbal worked with four owners of Bryan Road properties to get their entire block rezoned, and he proposed a site plan for an eight-story, 302-unit rental apartment development on part of the block.
City commissioners changed the zoning from “general business” and “industrial research office marine” to “planned small lot mixed-use development” for 90 North Bryan Road and 50, 70 and 150 South Bryan Road. The majority of the properties are used for boat storage and other marine-related businesses.
Project USA LLC is selling the 2.4-acre site at 150 South Bryan Road to Cymbal. The other property owners along the canal-front block are Dania Beach Marina Corp., NV Marina Holdings LLC and RJ Marina Holdings LLC.
Cymbal said he put the development site for his apartment project under contract about eight months ago. He declined to disclose the price he’s set to pay, but said he’ll be closing on it shortly.
Cymbal said the most important factor in his decision to pursue his apartment project is the adjacent 102-acre Dania Pointe development, led by New York-based Kimco Realty. The project will feature 800,000 square feet of open-air retail space, 500,000 square feet of Class A office space, more than 1,000 apartment and condo units, and a dual-branded Marriott hotel. Spirit Airlines also recently announced it will consolidate its headquarters and other facilities in Broward County at a new $250 million campus at Dania Pointe.
“It reminded us of a project we acquired in Wynwood across from Midtown Miami when Midtown was under construction,” Cymbal said. The redeveloped Wynwood property on North Miami Avenue is now the headquarters of his company, Cymbal Development. Like Midtown, the Dania project is also near I-95.
If Cymbal wins site plan approval for his apartment project, construction would start soon after and take 16 months to complete, he said. Rents would start at $1,195 for studios and $1,395 for one-bedroom apartments.
The signature amenity of his planned canal-front apartment project would be a boat club with about 20 slips, where members could dock their boats or use rental boats.
Inspiration for the planned boat club came from Cymbal’s experience as owner and operator of Riverfront Marina in the downtown area of Fort Lauderdale. The marina on the south bank of the Tarpon River is part of a site Cymbal acquired for a residential development called Marina Lofts, which hasn’t been built yet.
“It’s been helpful … We have about 250 boats there,” Cymbal said. “We were never in the marina business prior to our acquisition in downtown Fort Lauderdale, and we were really impressed by the business.”
Cymbal declined to comment on the future of the Marina Lofts development but said his planned apartment building in Dania Beach “is our most exciting project in the near term.”