A developer is ready for the second phase of a mixed-use residential development in Miami’s MiMo neighborhood, next door to Legion Park.
But the city’s Urban Development Review Board was unable to advance the application after an exhaustive review of the new site plan for phase two of Adela at MiMo Bay, at 645 NE 64th St.
The project calls for six stories, up to 337 dwellings, more than 5,645 square feet of commercial space, and parking for up to 524 vehicles.
The review board made a motion to recommend approval of the project with several conditions, which failed on a tie 3-3 vote, resulting in the project being continued to the next board meeting.
Several board members were critical of the size and massing of the new building, which would have about 500,000 square feet of floor area.
The failed motion to recommend approval had these conditions: Break up the massing; open the long corridor to daylight; replace artificial wall treatment with natural landscaping or another material; and reconsider the parking configuration to give more centralized parking across the project.
Attorney Melissa Tapanes Llahues, representing owner-developer MiMo Bay Apartments II LLC, said the company owns an assemblage consisting of 17 properties that abut Northeast 64th Terrace and Northeast 64th Street.
The lots that comprise the property and the area of NE 64th Terrace, which is proposed to be vacated and closed, is 141,519 square feet (3.25 acres).
In a letter Ms. Llahues wrote: “The property has been vacant for nearly a decade following demolition of the dilapidated multi-family and single-family structures that previously characterized the property…
“The property directly abuts the well-used Legion Park to the north and the property located at 6405 Biscayne Blvd. on the southern portion of western frontage… The 6405 parcel is developed with a one-story commercial building built in 2016 and a surface parking lot. The neighboring property across Northeast Seventh Avenue to the east is developed with a five-story multi-family building known as Adela MiMo Bay Apartments built in 2020,” she wrote.
The neighboring property to the south across Northeast 64th Street is developed with the Nirvana Condominiums, consisting of five multi-family buildings that are five to seven stories tall and contain over 400 multi-family units.
The property previously had different zoning classifications. Several other proposals for the property never came to be.
Nicholas Rodriguez, an attorney representing the owner-developer, told the review board, “In late 2024 the city commission approved a rezoning, the split zoning was resolved… through that rezoning process we got a ton of community feedback.”
Several design elements in the current proposal are the result of the feedback from the community, he said.
In connection with a rezoning request, the owner-developer proffered a covenant that limits development of the property:
■The maximum permitted density is 337 units.
■The maximum permitted intensity is 707,600 square feet.
■The maximum permitted height for portions of the property not within the MiMo District is 75 feet.
■A minimum of 20 units must serve income ranges between 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI), or below, and 120% of the Area Median Income, as published by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Of the 20 units, a minimum of 16 shall be reserved for households whose annual income is at or below 80% AMI.
■The applicant must preserve, relocate, or replace all on-site trees to the greatest extent practicable.
The covenant also requires the applicant to seek a warrant to provide public parking within the ground floor of the proposed development. Such parking must be available for use by the public between 8 a.m. and 12 a.m., except that the applicant may retain five parking spaces for operations of the building.
The developer is requesting an exception to permit a maximum lot size greater than 40,000 square feet for uses that serve the neighborhood. There is also a requested warrant to permit public parking on the ground floor.
The developer is also requesting waivers to the Miami 21 zoning code that would allow 502 parking spaces where 540 are required (a 10% reduction); and to allow retention of the nonconforming Northeast 64th Terrace curb cuts for an ingress/egress driveway to and from Biscayne Boulevard.
In her letter Ms. Llahues said, “The applicant envisions creating porosity and integration between the proposed development and Legion Park. The applicant carries the theme of porosity and integration throughout the development, including an additional north-south pedestrian paseo across the property between Legion Park and Northeast 64th Street.
“This paseo through the heart of the proposed development improves connectivity to Legion Park for both the residents and the neighborhood, while simultaneously breaking up the massing of the building.
“The central north-south pedestrian paseo flows through a landscaped central courtyard within the proposed development and connects to the east-west paseo at the northern end of the property. The connected paseos substantially improve the connectivity between the neighborhood and Legion Park,” she wrote.
Corwil Architects designed the project.
Board member Dean Lewis said, “Well thought out. I know this site very well. I even did a couple of concepts for it, way back when. I’m very pleased to see it come to fruition…
“I’m not quite a fan of the repetitive discs on the corner. You’ve done that before, we’ve been there … you have got to open up your corridors. Relocate your fire stairs, give yourself some daylight. That monotonous corridor held around the perimeter for hundreds of feet is just not user-friendly at all. Introduce slots of light,” Mr. Lewis said.
Board member Ignacio Permuy said, “It’s a missed opportunity. There are very few sites in the city that have the size and context that this site does. If you conceptualize the massing … it’s pretty much two squares and you putting those squares together you have a very long building with regard to mass.”
A representative of Corwil said, “We made efforts to break up volumes; there is recessed façade when entering the paseo.”
Board member Fidel Perez said, “I feel this building is very big. I think you’ve missed a great opportunity in tying this property with the park … It’s too bulky, it doesn’t have movement, and I don’t feel that parking in the center of the building works really well.”
He added, “It is missing things … The building needs movement. You need to break this building up somehow, so it doesn’t feel so strong as you have it now. I feel you need to go back and work on this design a little more.”
Board Chair Ligia Ines Labrada said, “A lot of the comments you received today are very valid. I would echo the concern about very long corridors.”
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