Second time’s the charm: Urban-X, Cedar Street score Miami projects approval following design tweaks

Developers Urban-X Group and Cedar Street Companies scored approvals for separate projects in Miami, after the firms made revisions to their original development designs. 

Urban-X, led by Andrew Hellinger and Coralee Penabad, will add a 28-story apartment building to its River Landing Shops & Residences mixed-use complex on the Miami River. Cedar Street, a Chicago-based firm, is homing in on Miami’s Little River neighborhood with plans for a 12-story apartment building. 

Both development firms’ original proposals struck out at first, after the Miami Urban Development Review Board took issue with the designs at past meetings. On Wednesday, the advisory board approved the architectural tweaks. 

The board also approved two other projects –– Oak Row Equities and Lndmrk Development’s 38-story, 324-unit apartment building in Edgewater, as well as Harvey Hernandez’s third building on the Miami River –– at its meeting. Overall, the developments would add nearly 1,160 residential units across the city. 

Here are the details: 

River Landing’s latest tower 

Coral Gables-based Urban-X plans the 475-unit MidRiverVu tower on 2 acres 1411 Northwest North River Drive. 

The project will be across the street from Urban-X’s completed 2.2 million-square-foot River Landing at 1500 Northwest North River Drive. 

Urban-X withdrew its MidRiverVu application earlier this year, after urban development board members took issue with a pedestrian overpass connecting the tower and River Landing. On Wednesday, a developer’s representative presented tweaked designs that scrapped the bridge. Instead, Urban-X will work with the city to create a pedestrian street crossing.

The tower has “a Lapidus-inspired, beautiful curve,” UDRB Board Chair Ignacio Permuy said at the meeting, referring to late architect Morris Lapidus known for his curving Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. “Everything is in sync.”

Mid-rise in Little River 

Cedar Street Properties wants to build a 191-unit apartment building on an assemblage at 

7737 Northeast Second Avenue, 236-234 Northeast 78th Street, and 245 Northeast 77th Street. 

Led by Alex Samoylovich and Will Murphy, Cedar Street struck out with the UDRB last month but came back on Wednesday with tweaks, including curtain wall panels at the top of the building and additional use of glass, according to a presentation by a developer’s representative. 

The new design also removed every other major column in the building, meaning the design now will have alternating major and minor columns. 

“The renderings look a lot better,” board member Fidel Perez said. 

Hernandez’s triple bet

Hernandez, through his Newgard Development Group, plans a 59-story condo building with 169 units and 12,000 square feet of ground-floor retail at 99 Southwest Seventh Street in Brickell. 

The tower would be the third and final one part of Newgard’s One Brickell Riverfront project on the L-shaped site. The Miami-based firm is already developing the 44-story Lofty Brickell condo building and a 43-story residential tower, which will share a podium. 

Permuy who compared the building’s facade to an iphone said, it “will be an incredibly beautiful addition to the Miami skyline.”

UDRB board member Anthony Tzamtzis cast the sole dissenting vote against the project, partly taking issue with plans for parking for the tower being housed at the podium part of the first two towers. 

“We are creating a condition with a building that is very unfriendly to the users with not enough stacking spaces for the cars,” he said. “Although I admire the architecture … I cannot support the project.” 

Oak Row Equities, Lndmrk bet on Edgewater 

Oak Row Equities and developer Alex Karakhanian, through his Miami-based Lndmrk, plan a 38-story apartment tower with 324 units on the northeast corner of Northeast 29th Street and Northeast Fourth Avenue. 

The developers bought the 1.5-acre site in Edgewater last year for $22.5 million, according to records. The 12-lot assemblage is at 401, 411, 421, 431 and 437 Northeast 29th Street;  2921 and 2927 Northeast Fourth Avenue; and 420, 430, 440, 450 and 454 Northeast 29th Terrace. 

Oak Row, with offices in Miami and New York, is led by David Weitz and Erik Rutter.