Developer unveils project to transform Miami’s Design District into upscale pedestrian promenade
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/0...rylink=addthis
A proposed $312 million makeover of Miami’s Design District would carve out a mini-Lincoln Road mall with luxury fashion shops, restaurants and public spaces.
Developer Craig Robins’ plan to turn Miami’s Design District into a super-high-end retail destination entails cutting a four-block pedestrian promenade anchored by two department stores through the heart of the compact neighborhood, which would also get an extensive green makeover — including rooftops covered in sod, gardens and mature shade trees.
The ambitious scheme, which gets its first public airing before the city’s planning and zoning board on Wednesday, would create a smaller-scale version of Lincoln Road Mall, though one lined with ultra-luxury fashion shops, and dotted with cafes and tree-shaded public plazas to encourage lingering.
Not coincidentally, the layout and scale of the pedestrian passageway also bear a striking similarity to those of Bal Harbour Shops, which is losing many of its luxury tenants to the Design District. But the plan weaves that enclosed-mall template into an intensely urban setting.
“We’ve picked up on the success of those two areas that we know have really worked,” Robins said during a presentation to reporters Monday at the art-filled Design District offices of the development group he leads, DACRA. “It’s about redefining retail and creating a mixed-use urban community at the heart of the city of Miami.”
The detailed blueprint, which DACRA submitted to the city last week as a “Special Area Plan’’ under the Miami 21 zoning code, also makes room for adding a hotel and around 100 units of housing in a mid-rise tower to what has been a commercial-only district. Both would be on the west side of Northeast First Avenue at 39th Street.
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