Crescent Heights proposes 280-unit condo tower in Miami’s A&E District

Crescent Heights proposes a 280-unit condo tower in Miami’s Arts & Entertainment District, near the firm’s planned redevelopment of a school board site. 

The Miami-based firm, led by Russell Galbut, wants to build the roughly 26-story building between Northeast First Court and Northeast First Avenue, north of Northeast 14th Street, according to an application Crescent Heights filed to Miami-Dade County this month. The project would have 22,000 square feet of storage; 1,500 square feet of commercial space, including retail; and 4,400 square feet of open space. 

Crescent Heights is asking Miami-Dade for a pre-application meeting for a special exception for a general development plan in the Rapid Transit Zone’s Metromover Zone. The site is near the School Board Metromover stop. Pre-application meetings generally allow developers to gauge input from county administrators prior to filing an official proposal. 

Records show an affiliate of Crescent assembled the six-lot, 0.3-acre development site for $6.7 million in three deals in 2018 and 2020. The site addresses are 101, 115, 119, 121 and 125 Northeast 14th Street. 

The application marks a step forward for Crescent’s yearslong push to develop in Miami’s Arts & Entertainment District, which previously was known as the Omni. 

In 2018, Crescent won a School Board of Miami-Dade County solicitation issued in 2016 to purchase and develop the 1.1-acre parking lot at 1370 Northeast Second Avenue, which is catty-corner from the proposed 26-story development site. The school board in 2022 approved the sale of its site to Crescent, which at the time was expected for $20.6 million. The deal has not closed, records show. 

On the school board site, Crescent has proposed a Rafael Viñoly-designed 43-story tower, called Casa Forma, with 1,100 residential units atop an eight-story podium with parking and offices. Galbut has said the units most likely would be apartments. Half the 1,100 parking spaces and about 100,000 square feet of the office space would be for the school board. 

Crescent Heights also owns the 1.1-acre parking lot immediately south of the school board site, across the street from the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, according to records. 

The firm, also led by Sonny Kahn and Bruce Menin, has projects nationwide, according to its website. In South Florida, Crescent Heights is developing the 39-story, 588-unit Nema Miami apartment tower at 2900 Biscayne Boulevard in Miami’s Edgewater neighborhood. 

In Miami Beach, Galbut’s GFO Investments and David Martin’s Terra are developing the 48-story Five Park tower with 238 condos at 500 Alton Road. GFO also is a partner with New York-based Lefferts, Miami-based MMG Equity and Matis Cohen on two North Beach projects. The developers plan the 20-story, 125-unit 72B condo building at 600-650 72nd Street, 7116-7134 Carlyle Ave, 7121 Dickens Avenue and 601-621 71st Street, as well as the adjacent 22-story, 206-unit 72 Park condo building.