Urbanica Reveals Plans for 28-Story Tower at 7915 East Drive in North Bay Village
North Bay Village’s ongoing development surge shows no signs of slowing, with plans now revealed for a 28-story luxury tower from Urbanica Development, a firm with several other high-profile projects already underway across South Florida. Despite its height, the building will be relatively exclusive, offering just 70 residences and joining a growing lineup of upscale high-rises reshaping the area, alongside projects like Pagani Residences and the Tula Residences. The tower is planned for 7915 East Drive, where it would replace Bayview Villages, a 41-unit low-rise condominium dating back to 1959. No sale has yet been recorded on the property, with the site’s last transaction going back to 2008. Still, if Urbanica moves forward as expected, the parcel should go under contract before long, clearing the way for demolition soon after. The project, designed by Revuelta Architecture International, was submitted to county planners just days ago and is now working through the approval process. Residences at 7915 East Drive will range from two- to four-bedroom-plus layouts, with the smallest unit measuring 1,997 square feet, putting the development firmly in luxury territory. Every unit will come with its own private balcony and floor-to-ceiling windows, while additional design details and finishes are expected to be announced closer to launch. The building’s amenity package is extensive, featuring a fitness center, a lounge, a library, dedicated kids’ and teens’ rooms, a theater, a spa, a shared living room, and rooftop pools. An expansive lobby and drop-off area will welcome residents and guests, while 142 parking spaces will serve both. At ground level, the project will introduce a public waterfront path dubbed the “Island Walk,” functioning much like a baywalk. The walkway will run along a newly raised seawall and include a wood dock and landscaped greenery, adding a required public amenity to what is otherwise a private development. In a letter of intent, representatives for the developer wrote that the team is “excited to bring this residential development proposal to this area of the Village,” adding that they believe the plan “will contribute positively to the community through the inclusion of the Island Walk.” Rising 339 feet, the tower will lean into a contemporary look, with a beige-and-gray color palette and a facade dominated by glass, including glass balconies stretching across much of the building’s exterior. The parking podium will be wrapped in perforated aluminum, a common architectural technique that shields parked cars from view while still allowing air to flow through the structure. The proposal is now moving through the approval process, and early signs point to a relatively smooth path forward. The property is already zoned for a tower exceeding 300 feet with up to 70 units, meaning the project meets the area’s core density and height requirements. The main outstanding item involves a handful of minor setback exceptions the developer is requesting as part of the review.
New Plans Revealed for Nine Hundred, a 540-Unit Tower a Decade in the Making
Back in 2019, things seemed to be finally moving for a grassy, undeveloped lot at 900 S Federal Highway in Hallandale Beach. The site’s owner at the time, LeaseFlorida, had just won sign-off from city planners for a 23-story mixed-use tower, a plan first floated three years earlier in 2016. The proposal called for a blend of residences and hotel rooms, topped off with retail space at street level. That approval landed during a building boom sweeping the surrounding blocks, one that hinted at the emergence of an entirely new high-rise corridor beyond the city’s usual waterfront skyline. Yet even with the green light in hand and momentum building around it, LeaseFlorida’s vision for the property never got off the ground. More than ten years after the idea was first pitched, the site may be on the verge of a breakthrough. New plans filed with the city in recent weeks reveal a fresh direction for the parcel, this time spearheaded by Northlink Capital, which bought the land in 2022 for $26 million, a striking jump from the $1.5 million price tag when the lot was originally assembled back in 2001. Northlink’s project, dubbed Nine Hundred Hallandale Beach, takes a very different approach than its predecessor, packing in far more residential density. The current plans call for 540 units spanning studios up through three-bedroom layouts, averaging more than 20 apartments per floor, with some floors holding as many as 29 units. That marks a sharp pivot away from the 2016 concept, which had paired 320 apartments with 140 hotel rooms. This time, hospitality is out of the picture entirely, replaced by a residential-first vision loaded with resident perks. Amenities include a spacious lobby, a pool deck, outdoor lounge areas, landscaped green space, and roughly 5,000 square feet of indoor amenity space tucked onto the seventh floor, with more offerings woven throughout the building. At street level, the project sets aside about 6,000 square feet for commercial use, while the lower floors, one through eight, are largely given over to parking, totaling 638 spaces. Idea Architects is behind the design, which nods to the original proposal’s bones while giving it a more contemporary facade: floor-to-ceiling glass facades, metal-clad balconies, white stucco finishes, and generous 10-foot floor-to-floor heights. Once complete, the tower would rise to about 258 feet, still 23 stories tall. The proposal is currently working its way through city review, and the developer has already covered all required fees. Still, there’s ground left to cover, including a series of public board hearings before the project can clear Hallandale Beach’s full approval process. No construction schedule or groundbreaking date has been set. But if the plan wins approval by late this year and permitting proceeds without major snags, breaking ground sometime in 2027 is a realistic possibility. After years of false starts on a lot that has sat empty far longer than anyone anticipated, Nine Hundred Hallandale Beach may finally be the project that turns this long-dormant patch of Federal Highway into something real.
Construction Advances on Citadel’s Headquarters; Foundation Permits Filed
Citadel’s long-awaited Miami headquarters is finally beginning to take shape. After years of planning and multiple redesigns, crews are now advancing toward foundation construction on the $2.5 billion project at 1201 Brickell Bay Drive. Once completed, the tower will rise roughly 954 feet above Brickell Bay Drive and stand as one of Miami’s most prominent office buildings, marking a new chapter for a site that has been years in the making since Citadel purchased it in 2022 for a record-setting $363 million. Permitting Progress According to Miami-Dade County permitting records, a $25 million foundation permit has been filed for the project and remains under review. Additional permits covering site access and a water main have also been submitted, indicating that the development is approaching the next major phase of construction. That filing follows an $11 million soil improvement permit issued for the site earlier this year, under which crews spent the spring performing deep soil mixing to strengthen the ground beneath the future headquarters ahead of the massive structure planned above it. Machinery associated with Keller, the foundation contractor believed to be performing the soil improvement work, has been visible across the property throughout that process. Crews have used large silos and other equipment to supply cement for the deep soil mixing work, gradually hardening the ground across the site. With that phase now progressing toward completion, crews are expected to move into foundation construction, beginning with the installation of the rebar cages that will support the tower, with vertical construction expected to follow later this year. A general contractor for the development has not yet been publicly identified, in part because of the limited information available through Miami-Dade’s permitting records, though that is expected to become clearer as construction advances. From Supertall to Office Tower The project has changed considerably since it was first proposed. It was originally planned as a 1,043-foot supertall skyscraper with a hotel component, but the latest design eliminates the previously planned 212-room hotel entirely, following Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin’s continued push to expand the firm’s footprint in Miami. That single change set off a cascade of adjustments to the tower’s height, floor count, and overall program. That expansion has coincided with Griffin’s increasingly visible tension with New York’s business environment. The issue drew renewed attention recently after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani proposed a 5% pied-à-terre tax while standing outside Griffin’s $238 million Manhattan penthouse, purchased in 2019. Citadel COO Gerald Beeson pushed back against the moment, arguing that the proposal unfairly singled out Griffin. With the hotel gone, the building lost the height it needed to justify its original scale. Floor count dropped from 63 stories to 52, and the tower’s height fell from 1,043 feet to approximately 954 feet, putting it roughly 30 feet below the 984-foot threshold generally used to define a supertall skyscraper. But the loss of the hotel also freed up room within the tower for a different use. Despite becoming shorter, the headquarters will actually contain more office space than originally planned, with the latest filings calling for approximately 1.642 million square feet of office space, about 150,000 square feet more than the previous proposal. That tradeoff, more office space packed into a shorter tower, explains why the project’s overall footprint still shrank even as its core purpose sharpened. The redesigned headquarters will contain more than 1.71 million square feet of total space, down from the roughly 2.12 million square feet originally proposed. While the tower itself has been scaled back and reoriented, it will continue to include significant public-facing elements along Brickell Bay Drive. Plans call for a baywalk with expanded sidewalks, landscaping, and public art, along with nearly 70,000 square feet of retail space at the lower levels. Near the top of the tower, filings also call for a rooftop pavilion, though its eventual use has not yet been finalized. The Team Related Companies is developing the headquarters, with Foster + Partners leading the architectural design. Field Operations is serving as landscape architect, Kimley-Horn is handling civil engineering, and Adamson Associates Architects is serving as architect of record. No formal completion timeline has been announced, but given the scale and complexity of the project, construction is expected to extend well into the early 2030s once vertical work officially begins.