Week of June 3, 2010
| Retail, dining and 490 parking spaces planned just off Lincoln Road in Miami Beach By Meena Rupani Five-story parking garage and retail center Lincoln East is replacing a once-planned nine-story residential condo just off Lincoln Road in Miami Beach. Plans are to open the garage next February when the New World Symphony inaugurates its new home nearby. Building permitting is concluding now as retail leasing begins. The garage will have about 490 parking spaces, said George Kousoulas, construction manager. In addition to auto parking, it's to house 30 scooter spaces and 27 bike racks. Construction, to cost about $8.5 million, he said, is to begin in July on the Northeast Corner of Drexel Avenue and 16th Street, 125 feet south of Lincoln Road. "The project site will be sealed off on the first of the month and we will be breaking ground approximately three to four weeks after this occurs," Mr. Kousoulas said. The goal for the retail spaces is to bring additional national soft goods retailers, clothing and fashion, to the east side of Lincoln Road, said Mr. Kousoulas and Jason Graham, another principal on the project. The space is also geared for a restaurant with about 150 seats. Real estate, healthcare and venture capital investment firm PLC Investments, headed by Chairman and CEO Paul Cejas, purchased the 420 Lincoln Road office building a few years ago and subsequently bought the entire block. The original site plan by renowned Mexican architect Enrique Norten of Norten Ten Arquitectos, with offices in New York and Mexico City, was for a nine-story building with 169 condos, 550 parking spaces and 15,000 square feet of retail. "Given the state of the economy, the condominium project had to be pulled," Mr. Cejas said. Instead, the site will include 17,400 square feet of retail and dining but no condos. The design by Mr. Norten has an exterior composed of a white precast screen with a number of small, randomized perforations. The goal is to be sensitive to the surroundings and reduce light and noise to the nearby residential neighborhood. "We are currently wrapping up the permit process. There were numerous amounts of paperwork we had to go through in order to receive all the necessary permits," Mr. Kousoulas said. Lincoln East has been in development for a year and PLC investments is just starting to lease out the retail spaces.
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