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One Miami
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One Miami Historic Royal Palm Hotel Site to Grow Again A Florida partnership is poised to turn nine acres of downtown Miami parking lots and vacant waterfront into as much as six million square feet of mixed-use real estate, including 400,000 square feet of retail. Dubbed "One Miami," this potential $640 million project is located at the mouth of the Miami River, "right at the point, where the Royal Palm Hotel was built in the late 1800s," said Ned L. Siegel, formerly of Weingarten Siegel and SGS Communities, president of Miami One Inc. (561-998-9200), the general partner in Miami One Centre, L.P. The other partners are Lawrence DeGeorge and Morris "Skip" Stoltz. One Miami will begin with 1,200 apartments, Siegel said, then develop, in stages, 400,000 square feet of retail, 300 condos on the point, a 300-room hotel, 1.2 million square feet of office space, and 7,000 parking spaces. Completion is targeted for 2004, and Siegel said the partners are currently engaged in an international search for retailers, hoteliers and other specialists to help develop the components. The details are in an economic and tax impact study compiled by Sharpton, Brunson & Co. PA (305-374-1574) for One Miami Inc. and submitted to the City of Miami. The actual acreage involved is 14.19 acres, but that is a gross area, which includes streets, sidewalks and other public easements. Net useable acreage is 8.98. The project consists of four parcels. At 43,560 square feet per acre, six million square feet equates to 137 acres of structure on nine acres of land, which would put the average building height at 15 stories. Clearly, things are going up. "This is such a large undertaking that you have to phase it, you have to chunk it. The demand sector is the housing sector. That then creates the other opportunities." Siegel is emphatic in pointing out that the cost and square-footage numbers being bandied about are merely projected maximums - the limits of what could be done with the site under entitlements the developer has obtained from the city. The marketplace will determine what is actually built, and how much, he said. The history of the site is inextricably entwined with the history of Miami itself, because it includes the spot where Miami's founder, Henry Flagler, built the original Royal Palm Hotel. Flagler, who financed John D. Rockefeller's entry into the oil business and became one of the original partners in Standard Oil (now Exxon), was a railroad magnate who brought the railroad to South Florida in the 1800s. He declined the opportunity to have the city named "Flagler," insisting it keep its original native American name, Miami. The One Miami partners Siegel, Stoltz and DeGeorge, have been partners before. They are three of the five who own the massive 565-acre former IBM complex in Boca Raton, now called the Blue Lake Corporate Center, the birthplace of the PC, which includes 1.8 million square feet of office space. And they clearly know a good deal when they see it - they paid $46.1 million for the property in February 1997, and they're dishing it out to smaller tenants at $6 to $10 a foot, the cheapest office space in toney Boca Raton. So when Cushman and Wakefield put the downtown Miami site out for bid, Siegel and partners had no qualms entering the winning bid of $35 million and purchasing the package of four parcels from its owner, World Financial Properties of New York. First mortgage financing was provided by Ocean Bank of Miami. "The marketplace will determine what is actually built, and how much." When he was with Weingarten Siegel, Siegel developed the MarketFair Mall, a small but successful specialty retail center in West Windsor, New Jersey, along with its neighboring condo community, Canal Pointe, across Route 1 from the world renowned Carnegie Center. One Miami will be similar to Battery Park City in New York, a Lefrak Organization planned community overlooking the Hudson River. So similar is it, Siegel said, that the same architect - Alex Cooper of Cooper Robertson & Partners (212-247-1717) - is designing One Miami. Cooper also created the Boston Seaport, now under construction. "Alex is putting together the pieces. We have the ability to provide housing, rental housing, right in the downtown business district, connect it with retail, office, hotels and condos. We're putting the puzzle together. The first part will be 1,200 rental units, which we expected to complete in nine to 12 months." What comes next, Siegel said, is what "the marketplace dictates. We think the retail element, which is 400,000 square feet, will fall into place. The condos are a specialty on the point, then the hotel, then the office space. We have an entitlement for 7,000 parking spaces, because there is such a need for parking. We first looked at the marketplace, obtaining entitlements from a use perspective. This is such a large undertaking that you have to phase it, you have to chunk it. The demand sector is the housing sector. That then creates the other opportunities." For more information contact: Cushman & Wakefield (305-533-2854), the exclusive advisor to the project, and will screen all inquiries from potential office and retail tenants, identify potential joint venture development partners and analyze other opportunities, Siegel said. Jay Caplin, John Bell and Mark Gilbert are the contacts at Cushman & Wakefield on the Miami One project. Inquiries or proposals also may be e-mailed to nis@boca.net. |