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Melo has launched construction of Downtown 1st, the firm’s newest transit-oriented development at 22 SW 1st Street in Downtown Miami’s Central Business District (CBD). The 57-story tower will include 560 market-rate rental apartments with 10,000 square feet of office space and 3,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. The development is located in the center of Miami’s urban core just blocks from several major employment centers – including a host of city, county and federal government offices – and will activate an area of Downtown that has been residentially underserved for years. The tower will inject the street with new activity, improved walkability and much-needed attainably priced housing. Construction of Downtown 1st is now underway and slated for completion in 2022. Downtown 1st marks Melo Group’s second residential development in Downtown Miami’s Central Business District. Pre-leasing is currently underway for the firm’s twin 52-story Downtown 5th towers, the single largest multifamily project to be built in the CBD, which will deliver 1,042 rental units upon its completion this summer. Melo is also planning to launch a third multifamily development in the area called Downtown 6th, which will include up to 800 rental units. All told, Melo Group is expected to deliver nearly 2,500 residential units to Downtown Miami’s Central Business District over the next two years. “We’re bullish on Downtown Miami’s Central Business District. Our firm’s guiding principle has always been to build for what the market demands. And now more than ever, we’re seeing people in need of good quality, attainably priced housing in convenient, walkable, urban locations close to their jobs and free public transit,” said Carlos Melo, Co-Principal of the Melo Group. Melo Group’s focus on the Central Business District comes on the heels of the transformation of Downtown’s once-vacant Arts & Entertainment District into a thriving pedestrian-friendly community with thousands of new residents, retail and restaurant options, and access to free public transportation. The firm delivered a total of 2,300 residential units to the neighborhood in a span of just four years with the 425-unit Miami Plaza, the twin tower 667-unit Art Plaza, the twin tower 710-unit Square Station, and the 499-unit Melody Tower. The four multifamily developments – all of which are near full occupancy – are clustered around the Miami-Dade Metromover Schoolboard Station and connected by an indoor/outdoor retail and dining promenade with a variety of lifestyle/service-oriented tenants and restaurant concepts ranging from Indian, Peruvian, Mexican, Japanese, Italian and more. Since arriving in Miami from Argentina in 2001, Melo Group has been a driving force behind Downtown Miami’s real estate resurgence with a portfolio of more than 6,000 total condominium and rental units completed throughout the Greater Downtown Miami area. While most Miami developers have typically focused on the luxury market in popular areas like Brickell, Sunny Isles and Miami Beach, the Melos have found success building attainably-priced housing in close proximity to public transit for the local market in well-located, neglected urban areas in and around Downtown Miami with future growth potential. By investing early in prime land and building for market demand, the Melos have delivered over a dozen high-end multifamily and luxury condominium towers over the last decade and a half across the city’s now-thriving Edgewater, Miami River, and Arts & Entertainment District neighborhoods.