Fort Partners, Dacra, Raycliff Plan Design District Project

A powerhouse team of developers scored approval from a city board for a Miami Design District project with condos and a hotel.

The project, called Miami Design Residences Designed by Chipperfield, sailed through the Miami Design Review Board board this week, with some members gushing over its design. The development comes amid an uptick in residential proposals for the Miami Design District, which is primarily a luxury retail area.

Miami Design District Associates and Fort Lauderdale-based Fort Partners are partnering with New York-based private equity firm Raycliff Capital and Qatari firm Constellation Hotels Holding on the project planned for a site on the northeast corner of North Miami Avenue and Northeast 39th Street. Miami Design District Associates, which developed the district, consists of Craig Robins’ Dacra, L Catterton Real Estate and Brookfield.

The development would consist of a 25-story building with 143 condos on the south side of the property, and a 12-story building with 85 hotel keys and 20 condo-hotel units on the north side, according to the architect’s presentation to the board and records included in the board agenda. Both buildings will have a rooftop, and the hotel building will have wraparound terraces.

The project is designed by Pritzker Prize-winning British architect Sir David Chipperfield and Cube 3. It is Chipperfield’s only Florida development underway, according to a news release on the project.

Condo sales are expected to launch next month, with Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group leading sales.

The development site is at 45, 53, 55, 75 and 81 Northeast 39th Street; at 10, 28, 40, 50 and 56 Northeast 40th Street; and 3995 North Miami Avenue. Records show the development partnership paid $143.6 million for the properties in two deals in 2022.

“I think your project is very fitting to the district,” said board member Francisco Perez-Azua. “The elevations here are very simple and subtle but elegant.”

Other members of the board, which often takes a critical view of other projects, echoed Perez-Azua’s view.

“It’s really a spectacular project,” Gia Zapattini, the board’s vice chair added. “It’s very elegant and sophisticated.” … It’s raising the bar really for the neighborhood.”

The board approved the project with three recommendations for tweaks: examining balcony edges and using a green roof material at a portion of the hotel building, and removing a picket fence-type balcony railings.

“I think the vertical picket fence railing is something we see in lower level projects like workforce housing,” Zapattini said.

Miami Design District Associates, which owns close to half a million square feet in the district, scored a $100 million loan last month for six retail properties, adding the debt to an existing $250 million financing on the real estate. The Design District is home to Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Fendi, Gucci, Off-White and Chanel, among other brands.

Fort Partners, led by Nadim Ashi, developed The Surf Club in Surfside and the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences in Fort Lauderdale.

In other recent residential proposals for the Miami Design District, Miami Design District Associates, Hunter Pasteur and The Forbes Company landed a $125 million construction loan in July for the 20-story, 107-unit Cassi apartment building at 91-93 Northeast 36th Street. New York-based Helm Equities’ Live Local Act project in the Design District scored UDRB approval last month. Helm, an affiliate of JEMB Realty, plans a 36-story tower with 278 residential units and an adjacent eight-story building with over 101,000 square feet of offices and some retail on a nearly 2-acre site at 220 Northeast 43rd Street.