824 Alton Road, a Live Local Act Project Proposed in Miami Beach, Grows in Height
As Miami Beach grapples with a sudden influx of high-rise proposals enabled by Florida’s Live Local Act, a pro-housing law that gives developments significant exemptions from local zoning restrictions, a second trend is beginning to emerge. Developers are not just using the law to build taller, but are now returning with some of those same proposals and pushing them even further. Live Local Act proposals across the historically anti-development city are increasingly being resubmitted at greater heights, testing the upper limits of what the law allows. The latest example is 824 Alton Road in South Beach, where a proposal that originally called for a roughly 400-foot tower has now been pushed past the 500-foot mark. The revised project would rise 525 feet, making it one of the tallest buildings in Miami Beach if built as proposed. The change is especially notable given what is happening nearby. Another proposed tower along the same stretch of Alton Road recently jumped from roughly 200 feet to more than 500 feet, after already being submitted under the Live Local Act. Both projects are tied to developer Russell Galbut through affiliated development companies (Crescent Heights, GFO Investments), adding to his growing collection of projects across Miami Beach. At 824 Alton Road, the latest plans would increase the project from the 31 stories proposed in 2025 to 39 floors, adding both height and density to the development. The number of residences would increase from 120 to 149, including 72 workforce housing units and 77 market-rate residences. The market-rate apartments would average roughly 1,368 square feet, while the workforce units would average just 445 square feet, creating a substantial difference in the size of the two portions of the project. The workforce component is central to how the project qualifies under the Live Local Act. The legislation provides developers with significant development rights in exchange for reserving 40% of their residential units for households earning no more than 120% of area median income. At 824 Alton Road, that means 40% of the project’s apartments would be designated as workforce housing. This, in other words, would allow developers to price studio units at around $2,800 a month at most, and $3,000 for one bedrooms. For residents, a seventh-floor amenity deck would feature multiple pools, outdoor seating and terraces, alongside 5,909 square feet of indoor amenity space. Higher in the building, a private club on the 36th floor would include 4,619 square feet of indoor space with a bar, seating areas, and restrooms. The club would also open onto an outdoor pool and terrace. Down at street level, relatively little would change. The project would include 2,556 square feet of ground-floor retail, while the bigger revision comes in the parking garage, which would grow from 119 spaces in the original plans to 156 spaces in the latest proposal. The six-level podium would sit beneath the residential tower. But despite changes to the interior program of the development, the most dramatic change is still the building’s height. RSP Architects’ original 2025 plans called for a tower rising roughly 411 feet, already making it a significant addition to the South Beach skyline. The latest plans now put the tower at 525 feet, with the highest roof, a pool deck on the 40th level, reaching approximately 510 feet. That represents an increase of more than 100 feet from the original design and would push the project firmly into Miami Beach’s upper tier of high-rises. At 525 feet, the tower would become just the third building in Miami Beach to rise above 500 feet, although that number could change quickly as more Live Local Act projects are submitted and existing proposals receive significant height increases. While the amount of land eligible for Live Local development is limited, developers have so far pursued projects on only a fraction of those sites, leaving plenty of room for Miami Beach’s skyline to change.
Kimco Opens Door to Major Redevelopment of Mary Brickell Village With New Transit Zoning
A high-rise on the eastern side of Shops at Mary Brickell Village? It may seem unlikely. Mary Brickell Village has been massively successful in the city’s busy Brickell neighborhood since it was built in 2007, becoming one of the area’s most recognizable shopping and dining destinations. But one relatively hidden zoning change may point to changes coming to the property. Kimco Realty, which acquired RPT Realty and its portfolio of properties, including Mary Brickell Village in 2024, filed to place the eastern portion of the shopping center under the Metromover Subzone of the Rapid Transit Zone. The request would place the property under a county zoning framework designed to encourage significantly greater density and development intensity around the Metromover. In late July, Miami-Dade County approved the change, giving the property new rules that could support a much larger project than what currently sits there. That change is particularly important given the property’s existing zoning. Located at 901 S Miami Ave., the eastern parcel of Mary Brickell Village is currently zoned T6-48b-O. The T6-48 designation allows buildings up to 48 stories, along with a density of 150 units per acre and other development caps through the Miami 21 zoning code. While that already provides substantial development capacity, the Metromover Subzone opens the door to considerably greater flexibility. Under the Metromover Subzone regulations, properties can take advantage of no set height limit, no floor area ratio limits, no minimum parking requirements, and other extremely flexible rules. In practice, that means the eastern portion of Mary Brickell Village could theoretically accommodate a very large mixed-use development, including a supertall. Created in 2021, the Metromover Subzone was intended to encourage transit-oriented development around the Metromover by allowing greater density near transit stations and hubs. The county has described the program as a way to increase transit ridership while giving residents greater access to employment, housing and other services. Several major projects have already taken advantage of the development framework, including Citadel’s planned headquarters at 1201 Brickell Bay Drive. Mary Brickell Village is particularly well positioned for this type of redevelopment. The eastern side of the shopping center sits on roughly 1.1 acres in the middle of Brickell, with Metromover and Metrorail access nearby, making it exactly the type of property the county’s transit-oriented zoning changes are intended to target. More importantly, Kimco itself has previously identified Mary Brickell Village as having “tremendous untapped potential for future density”, meaning a highrise development is likely. There are still no publicly announced plans for a tower at the property, and the zoning change alone does not mean that Kimco has decided to redevelop Mary Brickell Village. But, with Brickell continuing to transform around it, the possibility of a major redevelopment is becoming pretty hard to ignore.