Construction at Dan Kodsi’s Legacy Miami Worldcenter still on hold

Construction is still stalled at Legacy Hotel & Residences after a design issue halted work at the mixed-use tower at Miami Worldcenter in March. But work could resume in the next two to three months. 

Dan Kodsi’s Royal Palm Companies is developing the 50-story building at 942 Northeast First Avenue in downtown Miami. Condo sales launched in 2019 and construction began in 2021. It was previously expected to be delivered this year. 

The building will have 310 short-term rental friendly condos, a 219-key hotel and a Blue Zones medical and wellness center. The condo portion sold out during the pandemic for an estimated $160 million, The Real Deal previously reported. 

The plumbing and electrical penetrations were incorrectly placed, leading to the temporary pause in construction, Kodsi said. Kast Construction is the general contractor. On July 11, the developer sent a letter to buyers stating that the development team completed all the necessary drawings to resume construction. 

“If we didn’t catch this now it would have been a very expensive issue to deal with in the future,” Kodsi told TRD, adding that it was “worth stopping for these few months.”

According to The South Florida Business Journal in March, the penetrations were placed in the wrong locations because the use changed on some floors, from condo to hotel and then office, without the drawings being updated. Construction stopped at the 16th floor. 

Kodsi said he decided to keep all the construction equipment on site, including the cranes and elevators, so that they can re-mobilize once they get the green light from legal and the contractor. 

Kast, subcontractors and other companies working on the project have filed about two dozen liens against the property for unpaid work, records show. The most recent lien was filed by HuntonBrady Architects for about $300,000 in unpaid work. West Palm Beach-based Kast recorded a lien seeking payment for about $11.1 million, out of a total of $34 million.

In late 2021, Royal Palm Companies secured a $340 million construction loan from Silverstein Capital Partners. In his July letter to buyers, Kodsi said $190 million has been spent on construction. 

“While there is an adjustment to our original delivery timeline, addressing these issues today has minimized other potential delays,” he wrote. 

The building is part of the 27-acre master-planned Miami Worlcenter, led by Art Falcone and Nitin Motwani, in partnership with Los Angeles-based CIM Group. The $6 billion complex has at least 17 towers in the pipeline that have been proposed, approved or are under construction, and which would add about 8,500 condos and apartments, 500 hotel keys and nearly 800,000 square feet of commercial space, according to a TRD analysis published earlier this year. 
Kodsi and Miami Worldcenter Associates completed Paramount Miami Worldcenter, a 60-story luxury condo tower, in 2019.

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