In their first fully fleshed-out presentations on Tuesday, the developers competing to redevelop the Miami Beach Convention Center area described a vibrant new urban district of interconnected green spaces and cultural opportunities anchored by cutting-edge designs — even as they crossed swords over which plan would yield more benefits to the city at a better cost.
Portman-CMC, the team lead by Atlanta developers Portman Holdings, presented a substantially different plan from the preliminary design unveiled months ago, bringing it closer to the long-standing plan developed by their competitor, South Beach ACE. Both teams now contemplate attaching an 800-room hotel that wraps around the southern end of the convention center, restoring the Fillmore at Miami Beach Jackie Gleason Theater and adding a free-standing “cultural” building.
The teams are in the final stages of a billion-dollar competition to land one of the biggest urban redevelopment projects in the country: the modernization and expansion of the aging convention center, the addition of a major hotel and a mix of private development to transform what’s now an asphalt parking lot in the middle of South Beach. Miami Beach commissioners are expected to pick a team for the project as early as June.
