Development site near MiamiCentral hits the market

Zoning allows for 80-story tower or taller with public benefits

(Photos courtesy of Miami Historic Preservation, Smith Aerials, Colliers)
(Photos courtesy of Miami Historic Preservation, Smith Aerials, Colliers)

A downtown Miami development site where an 80-story tower could be built hit the market.

The property, across from Brightline’s MiamiCentral station, could sell for more than $40 million, according to the listing brokers.

The Citadel Arena Corporation is selling the nearly 1-acre site at 49 Northwest Fifth Street, which includes a parking lot and a three-story office building. The building features a historic entry portico preserved from the original structure that served as a Salvation Army during the 1920s.

Mika Mattingly and Cecilia Estevez of Colliers are marketing the property without an asking price, according to a press release.

The site could be developed into up to 400,000 square feet, 435 residential units, or a mix of hotel, office, retail and residential. If a developer pays into the city’s public benefits program, the 80-story max height could be exceeded.

Telecommunications company CenturyLink occupies the Citadel office building, with two years remaining on its lease.

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Citadel Arena Corp. is led by Daniel and Miriam Arias as well as Valeria Arias-Ferro. Daniel Arias bought the building in 1983 for $775,000, property records show.

The Citadel building was built in 1925 to provide religious and humanitarian services to Miami’s pioneers.

A buyer could seek to place the Citadel on the National Register of Historic Places and preserve it, allowing for the transfer of developmental air rights to the parking lot to the north. The property already has city designation, as the preserved portion of the building has elements of the Venetian Gothic subtype of the Gothic Revival style, according to the city’s historic preservation website.

Several development sites in the area have hit the market in recent months. The broker marketing a Brickell assemblage that allows for two 48-story towers said that site could sell for more than $25 million.

Nearby in Wynwood, a property with a fully leased retail-office building is listed for $24.5 million, and farther north near North Miami, a Biscayne Boulevard site hit the market for $10.5 million.