Urbana plans 121-unit condo project in Miami’s Edgewater 

Urbana Holdings wants to develop a 121-unit condominium that allows short-term rentals in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood. 

The Atlanta-based firm plans a nine-story building, called Vida Residences, on 0.7 acres at 410 Northeast 35th Terrace, according to the developer’s marketing materials and records. 

Urbana bought the development site for $14 million from an entity led by Zachary Schiffman of Miami, records and real estate database Vizzda show. The buyer also scored an $8.5 million loan from Northbrook, Illinois-based real estate investor and lender Bixby Bridge Capital. 

Designed by Kobi Karp, Vida would offer furnished units, ranging from studios to four-bedroom condos, and from 387 square feet to 1,780 square feet, Urbana marketing materials show. Buyers also can use the condos as investment properties and rent them out without restrictions, a Vida brochure shows. The amenities would include a 22,000-square-foot rooftop area and 3,800 square feet of coworking space. 

Urbana, led by Allan Gutierrez, plans to develop the project with its Miami-based Urbana Bueno division. 

The deal comes as development site prices in Miami have been cooling amid high interest rates and expensive construction labor and materials costs. In the fourth quarter of last year, the price per acre in Miami’s urban core hit $19.3 million, a 65 percent drop from the second quarter of that year, according to Colliers.  

The Vida site purchase price breaks down to $20.3 million per acre, or slightly more than the average price per acre in the city late last year. 

Vida marks a turnaround from previous plans by a different developer for the site. In 2016, Quebec-based Heafey Group filed a proposal for a 32-story project called Bentley Edgewater with 207 condo-hotel units. Heafey launched sales, but in 2019 scrapped the condo-hotel plan in favor of a 207-key hotel. 

It’s unclear why Heafey didn’t pursue its project. State corporate records show that in 2018, officials with Heafey were removed as managers of the entity that owned the site at the time, indicating a sale of the property through the transfer of an ownership stake. 

The plan for Vida comes as Edgewater has become a condo development mecca. 

Two Roads Development proposes a three-tower condo project with a combined 705 units on a 3.5-acre waterfront site at 2121 North Bayshore Drive. One of the towers will be a 55-story, Edition-branded building with 185 condos. 

Also, One Thousand Group, Terra and Major Food Group plan The Villa, a 58-story condo with about 50 units at 710 Northeast 29th Street. One Thousand Group consists of developers Louis Birdman and Kevin Venger — who were part of the development team for the Zaha Hadid-designed One Thousand Museum in downtown Miami — as well as Michael Konig and Alex Posth.