Demolition Permit Issued For Downtown Miami Site Where 448-Unit Condo Tower About To Begin

A demolition permit has been issued and a foundation permit is now pending at the downtown Miami site where a 40-story condo tower called 501 First is about to begin.

501 First is planned to have 448 condos, 10,000 square feet of retail, and no parking garage.

This morning (July 21), Miami’s Building Department issued a permit for total demolition of a structure on the site dating back to 1924. Beauchamp Construction is listed as the demolition contractor.

Plans for a phased foundation permit using a private provider for review were filed on July 13, while a phased permit for vertical construction was applied for earlier today. Beauchamp is the contractor for both.

The demolition permit issuance comes just one day after another similar tower officially broke ground blocks away. A groundbreaking ceremony was held yesterday (July 20) for the 39-story District 225, with 343 units and no parking garage.

Both towers are said to be sold out.

 

The 1924 building on the site set to be demolished:



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Anonymous
10 months ago

Sad they couldn’t work the facade of the old building into the new building

Anonymous
10 months ago

My thoughts, too.

hawk
10 months ago

Agreed, but at least the replacement looks top notch. There’s some nice subtle detailing to it like the altering dark and light coloration to the balcony facade. And no new parking garage where the base meets the street.

Anonymous
10 months ago

Nahhhh.. it would look too goofy.

Ana
10 months ago

That building was dump, the arcade was nice, but you can always recreate that with the new building. And even if they don’t who cares, this is real progress. That old building was really more than just an eye sore. It had been abandoned for over 16 years, since the 2007 downturn.

anon
10 months ago

It’s not “impossible” at all in fact it’s common practice in many areas

Qtip
10 months ago

You want rents to fall, this is how rents fall….

Anonymous
10 months ago

Nope this is an Airbnb building not apartments.

Anonymous
10 months ago

You can build density above (to increase supply/alleviate rent pressure) while maintaining the historic facade. The two are not mutually exclusive…

Downtown Vagabond
10 months ago

Unfortunately, developers aren’t building high enough to add enough units to cover demand. On top of that, City of Miami permitting process is way too slow. The backlog is so large. Why any buildings are going up that are under 60-65 stories, in areas that are zoned to allow that height, is beyond me. Okan and Downtown 6th will be across the street!

Anonymous
10 months ago

Impossible? It’s commonly done in NYC and it looks beautiful.

Mm305
10 months ago

Can we please stop trying to make Miami like nyc though. This obsession by brainless obstructionists to preserve the history of Miami and manufacture importance where there is none is holding our city back. Nyc is a dump! We don’t want to look like them.

Anonymous
10 months ago

^
Miami is not some thing of “beauty” either.

Jeremey Howlett
10 months ago

Exactly! It would have been nice to see that facade on the interior behind all that glass.

Jeremey Howlett
10 months ago

Of course they can still recreate that exterior on the interior using millworks, which would be a great idea, keep it all white so it can be illuminated at night with led flood lights. Of course the developer can do whatever they want because it’s Miami, not Miami beach, but they should at the minimum get some renderings and post them here to get some feedback. Also they will probably save a ton of money and will never have to remodel their ground floor . It will be “HISTORIC”, and older people familiar with the area will instantly know what that represents. It will make people happy, because really people like to feel nostalgic.

Jeremey Howlett
10 months ago

So just imagine that facade mirrored on the interior using millworks trim and painted all white. At night it would be illuminated a neon color, and as your passing by you see this illuminated neon shell of what use to be, behind a big glass wall.

Jeremey Howlett
10 months ago

Also, developers need to realize that if they build great buildings, they will always have first dibs on prime development sites.

Southwest Til' I die!
10 months ago

Its historic in the sense that it represents an architectural style that is no longer widespread in Miami. Most of our City came of age in the 1950s and after so we don’t have many buildings before that period, especially in Downtown. However, its a building that occupies land that can be used much more productively. Housing for hundreds beats a building that has been siting vacant for years. My only wish is that our leaders would demand that every building have an arcade/portico like that building I think that would promote walkability because it would provide shade and shield people from the rain.

Anonymous
10 months ago

Yes but different Architectual styles add to the character of a city. You don’t want every building looking the same. And isn’t this another airbnb building. This does nothing to create a community. Last I agree 100% with the arcade. That and actual shade trees can make miami walkable during the hot rainy summer

nobody
10 months ago

“Yes but different Architectual styles add to the character of a city. You don’t want every building looking the same.” you get it. people want to complain about everything looking like glass boxes, well what else is going up? i’d love for some more art deco touches in the newer builds.

Anonymous
10 months ago

Most of the city came of age in the 1940s to 1960s, but east of I-95 at one point was predominantly prewar. It would be nice to see more architecture paying homage to what’s left (from Dade County Courthouse and Freedom Tower, to Mission Revival apartment houses in Riverside/Little Havana) or even regrettably demolished (Everglades Hotel, Columbus Hotel, the gorgeous building destroyed by the School Board, etc.).

Mart
10 months ago

Downtown is still full of empty and ran down lots. I wish this new building occupied one of those, and the historical one could be a nice restaurant to accommodate the new demand

Anonymous
10 months ago

No parking 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Melo’s pájaro nalgon
10 months ago

So sad, I wish they would have relocated the building somewhere else. Miami has almost no historical buildings and tearing this one down doesn’t help at all.

Anonymous
10 months ago

Oh please.. go take your pity party somewhere else.

Anonymous
10 months ago

Back in the middle 70’s, I remember this building. If these people who are whining about it being historical and it should at least be incorporated into the facade of the new building, if they had seen how raggedy it looked back then with drug addicts, prostitutes, and straight up b u m s living in it, they would’ve been begging the city to tear it down!

Anonymous
10 months ago

Haha.. even you Mailman would’ve been one of those people back in the 70’s begging the city to knock this building down.

Miami is full of hypocritical people.

Anonymous
10 months ago

^
Um, wtf?

Like I said, Miami is full of hypocritical people.

BB1
10 months ago

This building/corner truly has little to no activity on it now. This new building will bring a lot of life and foot traffic to this area. I too hate to see an old building go, and the one there now is actually pretty attractive, but I have been in this situation many times before in places I have lived across the country and the new projects similar to this are almost always big improvements over what they replace.

MR MR
10 months ago

Ah the city of architectural suicide strikes again. The people who dislike history will be happy while those that love the old styles will be sad. Money wins as always. And by all the typical comments, it’s rather obvious who just doesn’t care about old beautiful buildings which are probably the same people who would rather have a “modern” house that looks like white boxes glued together.

Anonymous
10 months ago

Well I guess you refer to those millionaire and billionaire developers and the people who used to own and sold these so-called “historical buildings” as nothing but “Soulless Tyrants” then?

MR MR
10 months ago

Pretty much. You don’t have to destroy history. There are examples of working with history to preserve it. If they wanted to, they could have built around it just like they did with the Sears tower in Miami. The other day I read of how a Roman road built around 1 or 2 BCE was discovered when digging to build a new McDonalds in Italy. What did McDonalds do? They built over it with a glass floor so everyone can see it to perfectly preserve it.

Anon
10 months ago

I really like this and District 225. More infill like this and less like Melo please

Anonymous
10 months ago

Well, take Melo’s place and show us what you can do.

anon
10 months ago

working on it

Anonymous
10 months ago

Well, in the meantime, people are moving into Melo’s buildings while your just talking shit.

Anonymous
10 months ago

I actually live in a Melo building. Art Plaza.

I’m advocating for a slightly higher design standards downtown; less stucco (the cheapest finish you can get) and more glass and other materials.

Not sure why this is so controversial.

Anonymous
10 months ago

^
Look, I’ve seen vacant, derelict, weed and trash strewn lots in and near downtown for more than a decade in this city. Then finally, the Melo Group came along and built structures (while not the best architecture in world) that looked way better than those embarrassing lots we used to see. So it’s not about being controversial, it’s about being tired of reading these same useless comments from these do nothing and never showed us shit people when it comes to development and architectural designs. But they are always knocking the Melo Group about what they build and built. They sound like a bunch of Parrots and It’s starting to get annoying.

Aurelius
10 months ago

The issue is that as you add more glass and higher end materials you have to increase rents to justify the cost. Increase your rent $500/month and tell me if you want a higher design standard.

Anonymous
10 months ago

A crime. They could have worked with the facade, they just didn’t.

Anonymous
10 months ago

It’s their money!

Anonymous
10 months ago

And it’s our collective history and culture. Why should someone’s money be more respected?

MR MR
10 months ago

The “it’s their money” is rather old. It’s not a free pass to not knowing how to preserve. But it’s also the cities fault. All they see are the $ from the more money in tax they will get. They could have refused the permits. The city is to blame as well.

Anonymous
10 months ago

Tell me MR MR.. are you one of these people who think “government should get out of the way” of business? Because if you are, then that means you’re very hypocritical.

MR MR
10 months ago

I’m not saying don’t build. They COULD have gotten creative and saved the building while building the new around it like they did with the Sears tower in miami.

Anonymous
10 months ago

^
MR MR, this building sat there in the condition it was in for years an years an years! There were many opportunities for somebody else to use their money and get “creative and saved” this building, but you and other people like you didn’t. So now I’m reading comments from people like you bashing this developer about what he chose to do after he SPENT his money to buy this building.

Geez Miami is full of whiners.

Aurelius
10 months ago

This only creates more problems. We have a shortage of units. The government is already slowing developers down from providing decently priced units. Preserving the facade would only add more to the cost. This building sold at $800/sf and that was 3 years ago.

Construction cost have increased dramatically. They are fighting to make this project work. If it were sold today it would be at $900/sf+. Now you want to add more cost for preserving a structural facade that does nothing to the function but make peope feel better on internet forums?

Anonymous
10 months ago

Perfect all around – location and design it all just fits.

Casey Piket
10 months ago

This building was designed by Pfeiffer & O’Reilly and financed by lawyer turned developer, Frederic Rand, who developed a number of the buildings along East Second Avenue, and a few more on East First Avenue, during the 1920s. He was the developer who built the Roosevelt Hotel, which remained unfinished when it was converted to the Lyndsey Hopkins School building. The edifice was given the name of the ‘Windsor Building’ for the hotel with the same name that sat on that corner from 1912 until the early 1920s. The building opened in August of 1925.

Jacko
10 months ago

The development in Park West is in overdrive. Love it! Miami World Centre ( or whatever the area is), is going to be awesome in 3 years.

Nathaniel Martin
10 months ago

I’m very disappointed that the historic building is going to be demolished. I totally agree with other commenters that it could have been incorporated (and not just the facades) into a new complex.

Lokal boy
10 months ago

Tear down a 100 year old historic low density building to put up a 500 unit building with no parking.like Tony Montana said to elvira keep up the good work baby.cant wait for cat 5 to blow these eye sores and kooks back to where ever they came from

Anonymous
10 months ago

Regardless of what you said, you really don’t wanna see what a category 5 hurricane can do.

Realtalk Reilly
10 months ago

YES, they should have preserved the facade of the old building. It is very typical of the downtown buildings from the 1920’s, with the arcade walkway. There are hardly any of those left now, and they should be preserved.

They could’ve built a tall building above it with a vintage/throwback Old Florida style and facade to match the base. If they did it right it would be tremendously popular, just for standing out as different. Give it a name like Hemingway House or Coolidge Flats, and people would’ve eaten it up.

Meanwhile, the soulless creeps who come here to attack people who appreciate history and make comments like this one are the worst thing about this site. Well, them and the developer shills. But of course in most cases that’s probably the same people.

Anonymous
10 months ago

“Well, them and the developer shills. But of course in most cases that’s probably the same people”

Well it’s funny that I don’t see you talking shit to the people who come on this site and make comments about all those boarded up buildings downtown that used to house businesses?

Realtalk Reilly
10 months ago

Don’t look now but I threw a rock and I think I hit a Developer Shill.

Anonymous
10 months ago

Please.. you’re just another broke idjit who’s trying to sound smart but actually can’t do anything but talk shit about people who have money and put it where their mouth is in this city.

MR MR
10 months ago

Those creeps don’t have souls. That’s why they like their “modern” houses that look like white boxes glued together. 🤣

Anonymous
10 months ago

Yet, people like you who supposedly have a “soul” want to sit there and cheer for an old and vacant for well over ten years building that don’t contribute to any function for the city or even for the area it’s in. Tell the truth.. people like you just drive by them and don’t giveadamn about any of these so-called “historical buildings” until some developer comes along and buy one and try to do more to shift the dynamics of downtown and make a better contribution to the city. Flagler street has plenty of old buildings and do you see people from out of town ooowing an ahhhing at them and taking pictures of them?.. and the thing goes for all those old hotels and motels on Biscayne Blvd also. Both streets used to be the pride an joy of Miami and look at them now.. boring and mostly vacant.

Realtalk Reilly
10 months ago

Wish I could take credit for hitting two Developer Shills with one rock, but I think this is the same one.

Anonymous
10 months ago

Here we go again with this whiner.

anonymous
10 months ago

I hope they demolish that horrible Miami dade college garage next door.these parking garages and surface parking lots need to go asap

Anonymous
10 months ago

then where will anyone park while visiting downtown? DO NOT say they will just have to take Metrosnail, givve me a real world answer.

Anonymous
10 months ago

They can take the MetroRail or take an Uber. Not a difficult concept.

Anonymous
10 months ago

^from where? Aventura? Hollywood? Boca Raton? Get serious.

Anonymous
10 months ago

^
If you think the Metrorail moves at a snails pace, then wait until you get bogged down in traffic because there’s an accident up ahead, or rush hour traffic, or stopping at traffic light after traffic light, or etc, etc, etc…

Anonymous
10 months ago

^wait til Metrorail breaks down and you get to sit in a train with Crackhead Bob for a hour watching Accords and Camrys drive past you on time for work.

Anonymous
10 months ago

^
Haha.. you’ll get bogged down in traffic because of an accident up ahead, or rush hour traffic, or stopping at red light after red light at least 100 times more than being stuck somewhere because a Metrorail train broke down. So many people on those an air-conditioned metrorail trains will be, as usual, looking down at those tired, mad, disgusted, exacerbated, and impatient people in those overheated Accords and Camrys who are going nowhere.

Friday
10 months ago

Day 1 of asking for TNM posts on friday

Melo is sigma and chad
10 months ago

Good infill

Anonymous
10 months ago

Beautiful building that’s about to be destroyed and, more importantly, not preserved at all for absolutely no good reason.

Anonymous
10 months ago

Nothing new for Miami. They ONLY care about NEW money and new development. Let’s face it, this city has ZERO interst in what best for its residents. Elderly people are being evicted from buildings that are considered inhabitable. There should not be inhabitable building in THIS city. It’s a disgrace what this city has become. High rents and dismal salaries. And they wonder why we cant entice great teachers her.

Bob
10 months ago

One of the last historic structure bites the dust …. Too bad … you need some old things to give perspective to the new

Anonymous
10 months ago

Again, it would have been great to see the facade restored and incorporated into the base, however considering the proposed building, including its inoffensive base that isn’t parking pedestal, and Miami’s dubious history of facade and base preservation (i.e., the Wolpert Apartments and atrocious First Church of Christ, Scientist proposal), it’s an acceptable sacrifice.

Let’s hope it’s not changed into a box with jailhouse-style window placement and juxtaposed balconies.

Flex Finn
10 months ago

They need to stop tearing down old landmarks

MR MR
10 months ago

Probably another person who thinks “modern” buildings that look like white shoe boxes glued together looks good.

Scrappy
10 months ago

Well that is what you get when you have a city that is ran by people who doesnt have any historic ties to the city. They should tear down the one on biscayne Blvd that they claim to be their Ellis island when the came to this country.

Sara Wells
10 months ago

Why has only like ONE person commented on the parking issue?? Okay, two, the second person having enough gall to say that parking garages and lots “need to go”
All I wanna know— where are all the people who live in these 448 units supposed to park?? Are they just supposed to take up the already limited AF parking in downtown?? Miami already has tons of issues with availability of parking and it would maybe be one thing if they did things to actually make the city more walkable/Publix transportation better but they don’t and now you wanna build *another* high-rise condo (while tearing down a beautiful (if asbestos inundated and sitting useless) building from the 20’s and further our traffic/parking issues. On top of which I *guarantee* the units aren’t priced reasonably to begin with meaning that the building is *not* helping with the housing crisis and potentially even adding to it.

I honestly do not understand the way anyone’s brains work at this point.

It’s sad that a building with beautiful architecture is being lost, sure, and we can argue over the beauty of differing types of architecture all the live long day— what there isn’t much room for debate on is that housing costs are incompatible with standard American incomes and Miami in particular isn’t serving its locals well from a cost of living perspective by any means and exacerbating these issues as well as parking is absolutely ASININE.

Anonymous
10 months ago

Naw, we need to get to the point where you don’t even need a car to live downtown. Building thousands more parking lots will only serve to waste space and make our city less walkable.

Anonymous
10 months ago

I looked at a unit in this building precisely because the lack of parking. I don’t need a car to live in the urban core and many of my friends have recently gotten rid of their cars too. Life is sooo much better.

Anonymous
10 months ago

^that’s great if you want to restrict your career ambitions to downtown Miami. That is beyond limiting. You may find buying a car and driving to a better new job on Cypress Creek Rd or in Miramar to be lucrative.

Downtown Vagabond
10 months ago

Finally!

Anonymous
10 months ago

I think more people in this city want to see prices at the pump go down and could care less about this building.

Anonymous
10 months ago

People throw around that word “historic” too much. Tell me, besides being old, whats so historic about this building?

Anonymous
10 months ago

The building is beautiful. Especially compared to most of the horse shit downtown.

Bas
10 months ago

The dyer building that mdcc controls is probably one of the most beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen….im waiting and praying it get used for something unique ….true neo classical masterpiece

Anonymous
10 months ago

Newsflash, they will let is decay just like Freedom Tower and beg the State for money to use it for some school and students will wreck the building.

Anonymous
10 months ago

MDC owns it. It’s undergoing renovations to be incorporated into the school. I think it should have been Miami Public Library, but w.e the city would never invest in it’s public like that lol

Anonymous
10 months ago

It would be cool if it remained a public building but it’s too small to be a library at least for a main library for a city the size of miami

Gary
10 months ago

I was just there. The building is loaded with asbestos and many other contaminants. They finally go the go ahead to start stripping all that junk out. Eventually, it will totally rewired and home to high tech programing like the Business Innovation Technology Center across the street.

Qtip
10 months ago

And that’s how SF and nyc have such high rents…..I’m sorry to see it go but 500 new dwellings will help more than an old building.

Anonymous
10 months ago

You can build density above (to increase supply/alleviate rent pressure) while maintaining the historic facade. The two are not mutually exclusive…

MM305
10 months ago

It affects cost, which in turn affects the end user price – AKA the purchase price of the units. You know what makes something affordable, spending less on architectural elements and needless rococo frivolity. The same people that want more affordable housing also want it to be as nice as market rate housing and that’s just not feasible. There are solutions out there but they require some compromise.

Anonymous
10 months ago

B.S. Look at Hong Kong and tell me why rents are high there, too.

MM305
10 months ago

Hong Kong rents are high because the demand to live in HK heavily outpaces the supply of housing units being created. BTW rents fluctuate. Real estate in HK has gone down in value since China take over and Covid shutdowns – because demand has gone down. Miami is far away from the 15M people in Hong Kong. We have much more room to grow.

PirataDeCulo
10 months ago

NYC and SF got expensive because of demand.

Anonymous
10 months ago

Mailman, you called the building “historic,” so I wanna know in your words, what’s so historic about it?

Anonymous
10 months ago

It shows, contrary to popular belief, that Miami was a city before a bunch of people came here on floating debris because some guy with a beard and flat cap.

Anonymous
10 months ago

^
So you’re talking about one person versus a mob?

Anonymous
10 months ago

^
No, it’s not. In NYC, I’ve seen buildings that were much taller and bigger, had more character andarchitectural style, and looked very “historic” get knocked down and replaced.

Like I said before, if the Orange Bowl had to go, then I’m not shedding a tear for anything else.

MM305
10 months ago

Age doesn’t make something historic you Clown! Everyone is an architectural historian now and a Miami historian and a Miami chronicler. It’s ridiculous, and most of these so-called historians aren’t even from Miami, but they tout the old days of Miami as the best, the days that need to be preserved… Let’s be honest there is a lot of bigotry being used by those people all just to avoid acknowledging Jewish and Cuban contributions to this city in favor of a narrative laced with Bahamian immigrants and railroad pioneers. .

Anonymous
10 months ago

Haha.. “stop making comparisons,” even though that’s all you’re doing. You saw some facades of old buildings in Miami that were used and you think developers should copy them. You saw some old buildings in Miami get refurbished and you think developers should copy them. And I only brought up NYC only to show you that buildings much older than this one get torn down all the time. It happens in cities like Philly, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans, etc, etc, etc… So stop getting your panties in a wad about it.

Ana
10 months ago

Mailman, you’re a clown. First off architectural historians make it their job to be self-important. If they didn’t hype up the historical importance they’d be out of a job. Second a single person is only alive for their life, they don’t live through multiple generations. Third, they assign value to things based on their own narrative, not based on what actually is important for the greater needs of the city.