UPDATED, May 18, 5:15 p.m.: Race car driver and digital media tycoon Mike Zoi wants to develop a mid-rise office building at the Magic City Innovation District in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood.
Zoi proposes a 13-story building west of Northeast Fourth Avenue and between 59th and 60th streets, according to a letter submitted by a Zoi-led entity to the city.
The Miami Urban Development Review Board is set to take up the project at its Wednesday meeting.
The 1.8-acre development site consists mainly of warehouses retrofitted into other uses, including a building now serving as the headquarters for Zoi’s Motorsport Network at 5972 Northeast Fourth Avenue. Zoi, through various entities, owns the properties, records show.
The DB Lewis Architect-designed project would be mostly glass, as renderings show floor-to-ceiling windows and a bronze-colored building frame. The plan is for 206,352 square feet of offices; 79,676 square feet of other commercial space, including retail; and 390 parking spaces, according to an April submittal to the Urban Development Review board.
This is among the first planned projects at the Magic City Innovation District, a $1 billion mixed-use development spanning 18 acres roughly from Northeast 60th Street to 64th Street and from Northeast Second Avenue to the Florida East Coast Railway tracks in Little Haiti and Lemon City.
The Miami City Commission approved the development in 2019, despite opposition from area residents and business owners who raised concerns about neighborhood gentrification, increased traffic and the size and scale of the development. Opponents sued the city shortly after the project was approved, but lost in 2020.
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Magic City’s investment partners include Miami-based Plaza Equity Partners, led by Neil Fairman, Anthony Burns and George Helmstetter, according to the project’s website.
Construction is expected to start this year on the first tower at Magic City, a 25-story apartment building with 359 units, Burns told The Real Deal late last year.The 8.5 million-square-foot development also will have condos and retail, as well as offices aimed as a hub for technology companies.
Mayor Francis Suarez has been courting techies in a push to make Miami the new Silicon Valley.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story misstated Zoi’s country of birth. He is from Georgia and holds U.S. citizenship.