El-Ad National Properties scored preliminary approval for a height increase for its planned bayfront North Bay Village condo project.
Boca Raton-based El-Ad, part of New York-based Elad Group founded by Isaac Sharon Tshuva, plans a 26-story, 94-unit luxury condo building on just over an acre at 7913-7915 West Drive. Designed by garciastromberg, the project will have a six-story podium parking with 201 spaces, and an amenity level.
The North Bay Village Planning & Zoning Board on March 31 approved a site plan modification, including the height increase to 26 stories from 22, and a tentative plat. The village commission is expected to vote on the items Tuesday.
Planning board members greenlit the project after two residents shared worries over increased traffic in North Bay Village, with one of the residents saying she’s concerned about the collective effect from the multiple planned projects across the municipality. North Bay Village –– a three-island community dredged from Biscayne Bay in the 1940s –– is sandwiched between Miami and Miami Beach, with two causeways serving as the village’s main access roads.
Planning board Chair Ryan Shaw said El-Ad’s project likely won’t add too much to traffic. For one, at roughly $2 million-plus unit sale prices, the buyers “are probably not going to work from 9 to 5,” Shaw said.
“Maybe their nanny driving their kids to school every day might be the only traffic,” he added.
El-Ad’s project kept the unit count at 94, the same as a previously planned building on the site. Aventura-based S2 Development had planned the 22-story, 94-unit Marina View project. Construction never started, and S2 sold the site to El-Ad for $20 million in May of last year.
Aside from the additional four levels, El-Ad also had the building redesigned.
“This new design is significantly more elegant and significantly a better fit for the village,” architect Robert Perez of garciastromberg told planning board members. It’s the same “footprint as the previous building [but with] much superior architecture.”
Units at the building will average at about 2,600 square feet to 2,700 square feet. The building will consist of 20 one-bedroom condos, 29 two-bedroom condos, 35 three-bedroom condos and 10 four-bedroom condos.
The building is slated for North Bay Village’s Harbor Island, where other planned development includes Related Group and Macklowe Properties’ pair of branded condo towers, with the developers eyeing Ritz-Carlton as the brand.
Elsewhere in North Bay Village, Sunbeam Properties, the real estate firm of the billionaire Ansin family that owns Fox affiliate WSVN-Channel 7 in Miami, has assembled sites on the north and south sides of Kennedy Causeway, with plans for a mix of uses. The TV station’s studios, which are in North Bay Village, will move to Miramar.