Crescent Heights scales back 1212 Lincoln Road, adds CitizenM hotel, LED screens

Crescent Heights has again revamped its plans 1212 Lincoln Road, a five-story mixed-use project that stretches along most of the 1600 block of Alton Road. It will now hold off on redeveloping the southernmost parcel on 16th Street and Alton currently occupied by a mini-mall anchored by a Dunkin’ Donuts, while adding a citizenM hotel.

Graham Penn, an attorney representing Crescent Heights related companies ARRP Miami, LLC and 1212 Lincoln, LLC, and Wells Fargo Bank, told members of the Miami Beach Design Review Board on Tuesday that the developer wants to roll back the project from three to two phases and exclude redeveloping the mini-mall. “We are not in a position to to remove those buildings yet because we have tenants who have long-term leases,” Penn said. Crescent Heights paid $12.25 million for the mini-mall last year.

The design board approved the revision, along with Crescent’s request for two large LED screens on the northernmost side of the new proposed building and a variance to allow smaller hotel rooms in the project, which sits on the corner of Alton Road and Lincoln Road and across the street from the Regal South Beach Stadium 18 movie theater.

Recently, Netherlands-based hotel chain citizenM signed on to operate the hotel portion of the mixed-use redevelopment project which also entails luxury retail and a large indoor food court with a second floor balcony. Crescent Heights acquired contiguous lots along 16th and Alton that include an office building currently anchored by a Wells Fargo branch.

Tyler Lavin of citizenM said the Miami Beach hotel would be the company’s second location in Miami-Dade County. CitizenM recently acquired the Perricone’s Marketplace & Cafe site in Brickell for $16.2 million and intends to redevelop the property into a hotel. “We are a natural for Miami Beach,” Lavin said. “We are targeting that young-at-heart business traveler.”

CitizenM is known for offering “affordable luxury” accommodations with tiny, amenity-packed rooms. Crescent Heights sought a variance for 168 rooms, many as small as 168 square feet. The Miami-based development company originally proposed the two LED screens in October 2016, but the request was deferred until the city modified its sign ordinance to allow electronic murals as long as it is not more than two per property and that the electronic boards do not face a residential district. However, city rules prohibit Crescent from using the screens for advertising purposes.

“The whole concept of these screens is to provide simulcasts of what might be going on at the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, the London Symphony or the New World Symphony,” said Crescent Heights principal Russell Galbut. “It is an LED screen for art.”

Altogether, the Perkins + Will-designed project calls for 44,938 square feet of hotel space and 92,725 square feet of retail space.