Highrise Apartments Could Continue Steps Toward Downtown Kendall

By Jaime Levy
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Furthering attempts to develop the Dadeland Mall area into a live, work and play community, Green Construction hopes to add 218 apartments adjacent to the Dadeland North Metrorail station.

Richard Horton, Green president, said he expects to submit plans in February and have the $40 million-plus high-rise project, 8380 S Dixie Hwy., ready for occupancy by June 2004.

The plan is another step in sync with a 1998 charrette, which called for eastern Kendall to be molded into "a proper town center." To do it, the participants suggested making the area more pedestrian-friendly, adding green space, promoting infill development and changing development rules to do so.

In late 1999, the county OK’d an ordinance in line with the master plan.

"The whole idea of the downtown Kendall urban center is to have it residentially appealing – to be able to walk to shopping, to be able to walk in shaded areas," said Mr. Horton, also chairman of the Downtown Kendall Steering Committee, overseeing the master plan. "It’s to have more of the synergy of a town than just driving to an open parking lot to go shopping."

The one-, two- and three-bedroom units in the planned 25-story tower would be marketed to young professionals, Mr. Horton said, and would lease for between $1.50 and $1.70 per square foot.

Another significant project announced for the area is Downtown Dadeland, a 7.5-acre development that is to include 375 condos and 150,000 square feet of retail. Groundbreaking has been delayed to June while the builder, Gulfside Development, awaits permits, according to Jackson Ward, president.

"It’s all coming together as planned," Mr. Ward said about the Dadeland area. "It’s going to be a 24-hour marketplace with people living there, working there and shopping there."