River Village To Be Built In Three Phases, With Rafael Viñoly Designing The First
Rafael Viñoly is the architect designing the ultra-luxury 60-story condo tower in downtown Miami that was revealed last week.
The tower is being built by KAR Properties as part of Miami River Village, a three-tower project planned next to the Ivy, Wind and Mint condos on the Miami River. According to company documents, the five acre property is zoned for up to 4 million square feet.
At 60-stories, the first tower will include 1 million square feet, of which about 600,000 square feet will be sellable. High-end retail, restaurants, and ‘interactive components’ will also be built as part of the first phase.
Phase 2 of the project calls for a 50-story tower with a 150-room boutique business oriented hotel, along with 300 branded luxury condos on the upper floors.
In the the third phase of the project, a luxury multi-family apartment tower will be built. The third phase is still in the planning stages.
Viñoly was born in Uruguay and has designed projects throughout the world, including the Tokyo International Forum and 432 Park Avenue in New York. His 20 Fenchurch Street project in London was recently criticized by the Guardian as being ‘bloated, inelegant, and thuggish.’
London-based Gardiner & Theobald has been hired by KAR as the project manager for Miami River Village. The firm has offices in Miami Beach, where they are overseeing construction at Faena District.
KAR is an affiliate of AlphaTerra Partners, an investment firm headquartered in New York. The company is co-managed by Shahab Karmely, who will soon relocate from New York to Miami, and Brian Brille, who is based in Hong Kong. Brille is the former Chairman & President of Bank of America Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific in Hong Kong.
