Michael Shvo adds condos to proposed Alton Road office project in Miami Beach

City planning board will vote on plans for six-story building next month

Michael Shvo’s Alton Road Office-Condo Project Heads to Vote
Michael Shvo and a rendering of the Miami Beach project along Alton Road (Kobi Karp, Foster + Partners, Wikipedia/SSHaving)

Developer Michael Shvo wants to include condos at his proposed office project on Alton Road in Miami Beach. 

Shvo wants to develop a six-story building at 1656, 1664, 1676 and 1680 Alton Road, and 1677 West Avenue with five condos on the third floor, and 170,000 square feet of offices on levels four to six, according to a Shvo spokesperson and an application filed to the city. Condos would range from 1,600 square feet to nearly 4,000 square feet. 

The project would include 17,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, parking on levels two and three, and a rooftop amenity deck. 

The latest filing marks a change from the original plan that called for only offices and retail. 

Miami Beach’s planning board is expected to vote on the proposal at its Sept. 26 meeting. The city’s design review board would then take up the application for a final vote. 

Shvo has a controversial record as a developer in New York, settling a tax evasion case in 2018. But in Miami Beach, he is a relative newcomer.  

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The developer, in partnership with Deutsche Finance America, first homed in on the city in 2019 with the purchase of the Raleigh, South Seas and Richmond hotels at 1751, 1757 and 1775 Collins Avenue. Shvo is redeveloping the properties into a 60-key hotel and a 42-unit condo tower on the site. Rosewood Hotels & Resorts will manage the hotel and brand the residential building. 

Turkish investor Serdar Bilgili also was part of the joint venture that bought the oceanfront hotels, but stepped back following litigation that eventually settled. 

Last year, Shvo and Deutsche paid $39.3 million for the Alton Road development site, which includes the closed Epicure Gourmet Market & Café building. 

Shvo’s other South Beach investments are wagers on the area’s office market. On Lincoln Road, Shvo plans to redevelop the 13-story office building known for its clock display at 407 Lincoln Road. He also plans a six-story office building at 1665-1667 Washington Avenue. 

Shvo’s plans to develop South Beach offices is in line with city commissioners’ push to shed the area’s image as a party place. 

Elsewhere in South Beach, Bradley Colmer’s Deco Capital Group and RWN Real Estate Partners, part of billionaire Marc Rowan’s family office, are developing Eighteen Sunset at 1759 Purdy Avenue with three stories of offices.
The Gebbia family moved the headquarters of their Siebert Financial and Rise Financial to a retail space they retrofitted as an office at 653 Collins Avenue. 

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