Ira Giller planning mixed-use mid-rise in Miami Beach

Ira Giller wants in on his home city’s burgeoning office market. 

Gateway Group, the family-owned firm led by the Miami Beach architect and real estate investor, is planning a new $21.6 million mixed-use building with three floors of offices in the city’s Mid-Beach neighborhood.

On Thursday, the Miami Beach Design Review Board approved Giller Tower, a seven-story project at 976 Arthur Godfrey Road and 3915-3925 Alton Road that will also entail ground-floor retail and restaurants and a three-level garage. The offices would sit atop the garage and feature water views, according to plans submitted to the city. 

While addressing the board, Geller said he is going to market the office component to executives from other states who have recently migrated to exclusive enclaves such as North Bay Road and Allison Island.

“If it is fully occupied, we may have one or two tenants that take a whole floor,” Geller said. “My market is focused on some of the new  people who have moved to Miami Beach who are tired of going to Brickell and downtown [Miami] and fighting traffic.”

The development site currently consists of three single-story buildings completed between 1938 and 1954 that Giller intends on demolishing, his plans show. Gateway Group assembled the properties between 1980 and 1983 for a combined $730,000, according to records. Tenants include kosher restaurant Grill House, Super Y-Preschool and Bagel Time Cafe. 

The three parcels are adjacent to Giller Building, a five-story building also owned and developed by Gateway Group. The property is also the headquarters of Giller’s architecture firm. 

Miami Beach is seeing a glut of new office projects by developers hoping to land hedge funds, financial firms and other Fortune 500-type tenants that are moving or expanding to South Florida. 

Last month, the Miami Beach Design Review Board approved a new 101,400-square-foot office building at 1100 Fifth Street by New York development firm Sumaida + Khurana and the current property owners: Roslyn and Norton Nesis, as well as Robert and Miriam Weiss of Weiss Properties. Pritzker Architecture Prize-winner Eduardo Souto de Moura, in collaboration with Zyscovich and Gabellini Sheppard, is designing the project.

Next door, Sumaida + Khurana, New York-based Bizzi+Bilgili and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt are developing the Fifth Miami Beach, which is under construction. Designed by Alberto Campo Baeza, the project is a five-story, 60,200-square-foot office building with ground-floor retail and restaurant space. 

In April, Miami-based Black Lion Investment Group purchased the ground lease for The Lincoln, a six-story office building near Miami Beach’s Lincoln Road. After paying $62.5 million, Black Lion intends on spending $50 million to renovate the interiors and exteriors of the building. 

New York-based developer Michael Shvo is also developing three mixed-use and office projects in Miami Beach, including One Soundscape Park, a planned 62,500-square-foot office building near Black Lion’s The Lincoln.