Results

Public Official: Councilmember Raymond Marin
April 2003 Session

Final Report

Description of Project
The City's vision is for continued development of NE 164 th Street ( Hanford Boulevard ) as a viable main street that combines stores, offices, and restaurants with outdoor seating, entertainment, and residential tenants, in an attractive and interesting center for the community. The leaders and planners of the City of North Miami Beach wish to create a mixed-use development at the intersection of 164 th Street and NE 16 th Avenue. At this intersection, there are several parcels under consideration. The proposed design and siting of the development, its parking, and the streetscape adjoining it must fit within the larger vision of the main street area. The City wishes to develop a cohesive image of the area by tying in design improvements of the proposed mixed-use development and its intersecting streets with other neighborhood streets' design and improvements.

Design Institute Recommendations

The Design Institute team offered the following points and recommendations:

• Provide additional residential units and continue the 164 th Street improvements.
• Take advantage of demand for retail junior departments (need 10,000-20,000 square foot units for these).
• Supplement the Wal-Mart big box with liner shops along the 164 th Street edge at 165 th Street termination, in order to disguise its bulk; possibly a third party developer should be brought in for the liners. (Wal-Mart will bring 5,000 cars a day and provide opportunity for other retail, yet most won't walk from Wal-Mart so the design has to be such that they visit on their way to or from, hence the liner store concept.)
• Design liner buildings measuring 30' on sides.
• Create a main street marketing plan for the future tenants on 164 th Street.
• Continue quality features of a main street on 164 th Avenue and work to create a great urban place that allows fingers of commercial on side streets that run toward 163 rd .
• Use 163 rd Street as a location for Class A office space at some point since it will never be developed as residential, given its width.
• Surround parks with residential-assures increased use, adds eyes on the park and improve parks so that they are well used to deter homeless.
• Develop streetscape on parking/Bosque tree edges and incorporate mature trees.
• Evaluate future parking distribution on 164 th Street at build-out.

Results
On July 15, 2003 the Miami-Dade County Community Council approved a new Wal-Mart super center to be built on the NE corner of the 163rd Street Mall property. On October 1, 2003, demolition of the eastern one-third of the mall began. A 21 acre parcel was cleared and sold. Two thirds of the Mall was left untouched and continues to stand. Neither the 163rd St. Mall nor the future Wal-Mart lies within the City of North Miami Beach; however, they do occupy the western edge of the Design Institute’s design site. As such, this site functions as the western terminus of the 164th St. (Hanford Boulevard) study area – now called the Fulford City Center.

The Design Team’s recommendations urged the city to fervently involve itself in discussions critical to the outcome of the Wall-Mart project. The resulting super center will contain 226,000 sq. ft. of floor area, including a 64,000 sq. ft. grocery. Compromise resulted in Wall-Marts agreeing to incorporate design elements from adjacent Hanford Boulevard. The super center is scheduled to open in July 2005.

The half century old mall is again experiencing a makeover. New shops will front Wal-Mart’s surface lot, creating a link between the two properties. An out-parcel of shops will front NE 163rd St. near NE 15th Ave., just south of the new Wal-Mart. To the east, Hanford Boulevard (NE 164th St.) serve’s as the spine for the community’s newly created town center, officially known as the Fulford City Center District. In keeping with the recommendations of the Design Team, Hanford Boulevard will present as the district’s "Main Street". The city is in the process of installing wide sidewalks, textured crosswalks, decorative lighting, shade trees, a landscaped median, and on-street public parking along the Boulevard.

The other development project is at the northwest corner of NE 163rd St. and West Dixie Highway. It also will be a two-story building with retail on the ground floor and offices on the second floor. The total floor area will be 18,500 sq.ft. Total development cost will be about $1.5 million. Construction is underway and should soon be completed.

March 2006

The North Miami Beach City Council voted unanimously to approve a redevelopment plan for a Community Redevelopment Agency. The proposed redevelopment area includes Fulford City Center . The vote sends the plan back to the county's CRA Committee, which are expected send it to the County Commission for final approval after reviewing the plan.

Additional Contacts

Keven Klopp, Deputy City Manager (305) 948-2900
keven.klopp@ci.north-miami-beach.fl.us