Helm Equities received approval from the Miami Urban Development Review Board for its Live Local Act project in the Miami Design District, following a meeting where board members expressed mixed opinions about the building’s design.
The project, designed by Cube 3 and affiliated with New York-based JEMB Realty, will feature a 36-story tower containing 278 residential units and an adjacent eight-story structure with over 101,000 square feet of office space and some retail. The development is planned for a nearly two-acre site at 220 Northeast 43rd Street.
Of the residential units, approximately 116 will be workforce rentals, while the remainder will be market-rate condos. This distribution complies with Florida’s Live Local Act, which requires that at least 40 percent of units are reserved for households earning no more than 120 percent of the area median income. Developers under this law can build larger projects or receive significant tax incentives.
During the review board meeting, member Gia Zapattini commented on the complexity of Helm’s proposal. “There’s a lot going on in this project. There’s curves and arches. I understand you are trying to do something unique for the Design District and trying to do something cool,” she said to the architect. “It’s a very complicated little project.”
Zapattini also noted that combining workforce rentals and high-end condos in one building adds to its complexity and suggested simplifying aspects of the design due to concerns about cost and construction challenges. “This is a very tricky project to build,” she said.
Other board members responded more positively. Ignacio Permuy remarked that there were “a lot of things going on … that are very, very good,” while Francisco Perez-Azua described it as “a bit eclectic” but saw value in its approach: “But I see the value in that and the interest of that. I think it’s a nice project.”
The board approved Helm’s plan with recommendations for changes to parts of the façade for added variation and adjustments to renderings so they better match floor plans.
In addition to Helm Equities’ proposal, Namdar Group secured approval for a separate Live Local Act project—a 42-story multifamily tower with 1,011 units in Brickell at 250 and 296 Southwest Seventh Street. Designed by Behar Font & Partners, this tower will offer 405 apartments at workforce rents for qualifying households. Board discussion included concerns about increasing traffic congestion in Brickell.
Crescent Heights also received approval for its second phase of the Forma apartment complex in Edgewater. The new Arquitectonica-designed building will have 360 multifamily units across 42 stories alongside a six-story commercial structure with retail and office space at 200 Northeast 30th Street. This follows Crescent Heights’ completion last year of another nearby apartment tower.
