The owner of the former Epicure Alton Road site, where Shvo’s plan for an office project failed to materialize, wants to build a multifamily mixed-use project.
An affiliate of New York-based Infinity Collective is seeking approval for development regulations changes, with preliminary plans for a 14-story, 184-unit multifamily building with 85,000 square feet of retail and 35,100 square feet of offices, the South Florida Business Journal reported.
The Miami Beach Planning Board will vote on the request on April 7. City commissioners will have final say at a yet unscheduled meeting.
The filing marks a new chapter for the 1.4-acre assemblage at 1656 -1680 Alton Road, and 1677 West Avenue in Miami Beach. The proposed changes may also include adjacent commercial buildings, between Alton Road and West Avenue.
The proposal comes with the developer’s commitment the site won’t be used for short-term rentals or a hotel for 30 years.
The filing entity, Alton Ventures Development, is majority owned by Infinity’s Steven Kassin, as well as Albert Kassin, while minority investors include Rock Soffer, Abigail Soffer, Estee Natkin, Nathalie Sutton, Raquel Mosseri, Jack Azout, Shlomo Khoudari and Sylvain Argy.
Infinity Collective’s affiliate acquired the property in September from Michael Shvo’s eponymously named firm in a deed in lieu of foreclosure for $28.3 million. Shvo, who had paid $39.3 million for the property in 2022, scored approval for the six-story The Alton project with about 17,000 square feet of offices and five apartments in 2023.
Around that time, South Florida’s once-booming office market was feeling the squeeze from elevated interest rates and a much slower influx of new-to-market firms, with several planned projects canceled.
The $28.3 million listed on the deed in lieu of foreclosure record equates the amount Shvo had borrowed on the property in 2022.
Shvo has parted with several of his marquee projects in recent months amid reported disputes with his investment partner on many of the holdings, Bayerische Versorgungskammer, Germany’s largest pension fund.
In October, Shvo sold the Raleigh Miami Beach hotels site where it planned to add a condo project. Nahla Capital paid $270 million for the 3-acre property.
Shvo and BVK also are under contract to sell San Francisco’s Transamerica Pyramid office tower for $700 million to a Cyprus-based investment firm.
Talks of a fallout between Shvo and BVK had been circulating for months, including reporting this year that BVK was trying to force out Shvo from the San Francisco office tower. Shvo initially rejected the rumors.
BVK also had backed the Raleigh investment but not the Alton Road project.
Elsewhere in Miami Beach, Infinity owns the Esme hotel on Española Way, the Variety Hotel at 1700 Alton Road and properties on Ocean Drive.
–– Lidia Dinkova
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