Chicago Company Plans 300 Apartments At Brickell’s Starlite Motel Property

Another Chicago company has purchased property in Miami, with plans to build hundreds of apartments.

Chicago-based Focus paid $28 million for the Starlite Motel property.

Focus is planning to build 300 apartments on the property, but hasn’t yet filed plans, according to media reports.

The lot size 43,500 square feet.

A total demolition permit for the old motel was issued on November 10.

Next door, a 22-story hotel tower was recently completed, with 264 hotel units split between the AC Hotel by Marriott and Element by Westin brands.

 

 

(photos: Phillip Pessar)

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my balls melo
6 months ago

lust in the dust….

Anonymous
6 months ago

Hopefully this will continue throughout Brickell. I would love to see any holdover degraded properties in West Brickell replaced with luxury boutique residential and retail buildings.

Anonymous
6 months ago

luxury botique residential….next door to plana ocho’s in east Little Havana

Anonymous
6 months ago

There’s a high highway barrier if you hadn’t noticed. Also Little Havana is getting much nicer and it has huge cultural appeal for travelers.

Anonymous
6 months ago

..and since you have no clue, west Brickell still next door to apartamentos de plana ochoa and is away from the Bay. West Brickell has good value, but not as some high end boutique stuff that’s priced higher than the existing waterfront projects.

Anonymous
6 months ago

I’ve been studying the market for over a year and have experience in Florida and New York City real estate, so I do have more than a clue. Many of those “apartamentos” are too old to be restored so developers are realizing the high value in this area and knocking them down to put in luxury boutique buildings.

The new properties in West Brickell are comparable in price to many on the water, especially in the older buildings are are not even lendable. This area is the new frontier for luxury development.

Watch and see, I want to live in this area because it’s easier to get to Coral Gables, the Grove, and highway and still very walkable to core of Brickell (more so than most of the waterfront condos).

Anonymous
6 months ago

No, that’s an excuse to let properties decay, demolish, and flip land assemblages for another concrete box on a parking deck.

Anonymous
6 months ago

It’s a 5 minute walk to the bay and literally next to Brickell City Centre and Mary Brickell Village, which is the core of Brickell. You can see expansive views of the bay and Coral Gables from the condos in West Brickell and resort-style rooftop pools. Sorry, I think your outlook is obsolete or misinformed.

Anonymous
6 months ago

Everywhere in Brickell, including West Brickell, is a short walk to the water—unless you’re in an older building directly on the water, specifically facing East. Also the riverfront is the nicest waterfront walking area, and developing as such. The Bay is blocked by old condos and there’s not much to see up that close. A lot of places have better views and nicer neighborhood feel in West Brickell.

Dan marino
6 months ago

Nobody is goin to walk from “west breekill” to the bay…get over that…and why pay luxury for this area when you can live on the beach for less$$$

Anonymous
6 months ago

^exactly….this guy is a shill for some west Brickell project trying to drum up interest

Anonymous
6 months ago

I’m not a shill, I’m just an average brickell resident with no business affiliations that wants to see Brickell meet it’s full potential. I want to see it grow into a thriving walkable business and residential neighborhood.

There’s already a bunch of tall offices and short-term rental spots north and east, but would be nice to see a high end dense residential and retail zone and West Brickell is ideally plotted for this and progressing as such.

Anonymous
6 months ago

I know a bunch of people that do. That’s nuts. The walk is about the same time as the elevator ride down in a tall building on the water. Also people don’t want to the bay every day, they go to work and West brickell is more convenient for daily life. The bay is something people like to see once a week if that once their settled into daily life here.

Anonymous
6 months ago

Since when is the beach less$$$? I’d move to WBrickell for extra square footage, newer amenities, nicer views, convenience to I95, and walkable community (not all units on oceanfront are designed with nice views, nobody wants to pay premium for a slim cutout view).

Anonymous
6 months ago

It’s only 3-4 blocks away, surely if you can run the length of a football field, you can catch what I’m saying 🙂

Anonymous
6 months ago

The waterfront is great for tall buildings because that’s the draw, the view, but west Brickell is better for luxury services, neighborhood setting and walkability near the Underline park, Brickell City Centre, Gables and Grove, and riverfront. Boutique buildings and retail are here and being built faster than any other area.

Anonymous
6 months ago

^this West Brickell Boutique Building thing is like the World Class Resort Casino fetish….die on that hill

Look, “luxury services” don’t appreciate. Location and views DO appreciate.

Anonymous
6 months ago

You’re comparing apples and oranges.

Revitalizing west brickell is something that benefits all of brickell, so there is a consensus around it. The casino resort well that’s just a niche pleasure project that brings negativity to Miami.

You can’t rationally compare these projects.

Anonymous
6 months ago

West Brickell has views AND location.

More so than Brickell Heights and Central Brickell. You’re looking at this from an older paradigm. At first bay front was the main appeal, but now world class lifestyle is inching up as a secondary basis for location.

Brickell is all brickell, people don’t care which part as long as it’s a newer development, convenient and walkable to entertainment and work. People see the water every day, many from their West Brickell balconies, whether we live directly on it or not is superfluous.

Truth for Development
6 months ago

That is BS, and you know it, the properties in West Brickell have doubled in price in only the last few years. Appreciation is not only on the water here. Could you imagine what it will cost in West Brickell when the luxury retailers move in, and they redo the roads and drop the electric poles underground?

Bank of America is opening a modern new branch here very soon. I can see a gourmet market about to open up on 2nd Avenue, and the new roundabout is going to make this area a nice flow.

Residents can walk along the underline to the river or all the way through the second phase to Vizcaya. This is a world class neighborhood and perfect for developers, investors and owners looking for a piece of the pie to call home!

Anonymous
6 months ago

^^^got any more Luxury West Brickell shill posts, clown?…lmao keep upvoting yourself too.

Anonymous
6 months ago

The Cuban area is very nice and will also lock up next to Brickell and riverfront. It has to, there’s no more llacd to develop and people want to keep walking!

Anonymous
6 months ago

There is no section 8 housing remotely close to the West Brickell. This is a high-end new development zone Can you cite your sources? This seems like misinformation and not true.

Anonymous
6 months ago

^No section 8 “remotely close”…is East Little Havana “remotely close”? Of course it is—it’s right next door.

Anonymous
6 months ago

It’s probably not remotely close. Give an address.

If there is, it’s just as far away as it is to the Brickell City Centre or any of the other luxury developments. It has absolutely no impact on property value in west brickell or brickell at large.

There’s million dollar studio apartments in Chelsea NYC a block away from Section 8. Brickell isn’t even remotely as close to that type of housing.

Anonymous
6 months ago

I confirmed there is NO section 8 housing near any part of Brickell, including Central/West Brickell.

The closest section 8 housing is Riverside Apartments in Little
Havana, which is 2 kilometers away from the most western point of Brickell and largely separated by infrastructure barriers like by I95.

Section 8 housing typically is within this same radius of any neighborhood in any city. In fact coconut grove has section 8 housing close by and some of the most valuable properties are in this neighborhood.

It’s highly unlikely that Brickell will only grow up and not fill up west to I95 – this is actually the gateway to Brickell and just as valuable if not more to the neighborhood core.

Anonymous
6 months ago

2 “kilometers”……yeah I can see you’re from Miami lmao keep shillin’

Anonymous
6 months ago

That’s what Google map uses. I’m more of a miles guy personally. Figured it would be fine to use with international investors reading. Not sure why it upsets you to see Brickell develop, but hopefully we’re all pleased by how it goes. Have a happy Thanksgiving! #noshillingjustwinning

Mad Dash
6 months ago

That motel looks hideous.
Can’t wait to see it completely demoed. The pseudo Mediterranean huts in the area are a plague

Anonymous
6 months ago

Not Mediterranean. A crappy hip-roofed shack with a barrel tile roof.

Melo, the true giga chad
6 months ago

Sounds like a land flip

chariff but not omar...
6 months ago

what you dont trust the hotel designation for the units by two different companies??

Miami4Life
6 months ago

Another blight bites the dust. Bye bye to this trash property

Anony
6 months ago

rip to a piece of Miami’s seedy history

Beetlejuice
6 months ago

If those Walls could talk ! Memories…