Board Approves Demolition

Bercow Radell & Fernandez Obtains Approval for Client

JMH Development gets the go-ahead for Indian Creek project

New York-based developer Jason Halpern’s JMH Development has been given the go-ahead to carry out a rare demolition in South Beach, in a bid to build a 35,000-square-foot condo building at 2901 Indian Creek Drive. Halpern paid $5.65 million for the parcel late last year.

Approval came from the Miami Beach Historic Preservation Board, which is allowing Halpern to demolish a 1938 structure while retaining two other buildings built in 1936 and 1962 in a project, which one board member said, “would improve a blighted neighborhood.“

Halpern told The Real Deal that the project will have about 15 units, and among them will be three multistory townhomes with individual plunge pools. It will also have a unique to Miami semi-automated parking elevator system that residents will operate. The neighborhood is known for having virtually no street parking and squeezing more than 20 parking spaces into the structure would have been extremely difficult without parking elevators, Halpern told TRD, adding that automated parking elevators are common in New York and actually work best in small buildings.

J.J. Wood and Sebastian Velez of the Miami Beach architecture firm Urban Robot designed the complex. Halpern said the two and his Executive Vice President Laura Garcia had the challenge of combining the historic with the new.

“We put a lot of thought into the contrast between the two and we think it is relevant and we spend a lot of time looking at that,” Halpern said.

A staff report from the Historic Preservation Board noted that when completed, the seven-story structure with its inward sweeping balconies will reference some of the classic Morris Lapidus style buildings found just to the east on Collins Avenue. The report said that the façade of the building has been set back approximately 90 feet from the west facades of historic buildings in the area.

Even preservationists normally averse to any demolition in Miami Beach like the project. Daniel Ciraldo of the Miami Design Preservation League called the project “a good example of blending the old and the new, the design is successful.”

Halpern said he and his team hope to start building in early 2016 and sales should begin in the next four to six months, although he said his team has yet to decide on pricing.

– James Teeple

Published on TheRealDeal.com, May 13, 2015

Rendering of Indian Creek project and Jason Halpern photo