Redevelopment of the Blackstone-owned Southgate Towers in Miami Beach with a 38-story Live Local Act project is a no-go due to a zoning conflict, city officials said in a letter.
Southgate Towers LLC filed an application to replace the two 14-story apartment buildings with 495 units at 910 West Avenue, with a pair of new towers, according to the Oct. 8 filing.
The proposed redevelopment, designed by Arquitectonica, called for 442 units, consisting of 264 condos and 178 apartments at workforce rents.
But the site isn’t eligible under the Live Local Act because it’s in a residentially zoned district, and the state law is for areas with industrial, commercial and mixed-use zoning, Miami Beach Planning Director Deborah Tackett wrote in a letter issued Friday to the developer.
The decision isn’t final. The developer can appeal it to the city board of adjustment, Tackett wrote in her letter.
Air Communities, a Denver-based publicly traded real estate investment trust, had paid $250.5 million for the apartment buildings and nearby garage at 959 West Avenue in 2023. Southgate was developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Air was acquired and privatized by Blackstone Real Estate in 2024.
The attorney who filed Southgate Towers’ application didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Blackstone also didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
In the application letter, the attorney said the project alleviates the site’s intensity due to the reduction by 53 units in the proposed development.
Miami Beach’s administrative determination comes as city officials and residents have increasingly pushed back on the numerous Live Local applications filed in the city. Opponents argue the potential onslaught of development would be out of character and put further strain on roads and other infrastructure such as stormwater drainage and sewers. They also take issue with the legislation stripping local governments from having a say on development.
Miami Beach has ramped up its fight against the state law, with commissioners approving a slew of measures this month, including an item that lays a path for the city to pursue legal action against Live Local. Another of the items directs the city attorney to work with his counterpart in Miami, which also has teed up a Live Local fight, on arguments against the state law. Both cities have stopped short of outright launching lawsuits.
Under Live Local, first approved in 2023 and tweaked in subsequent years, developers can bypass public hearings and obtain administrative project approval for bigger buildings than allowed by a site’s zoning, as long as they designate 40 percent of units as apartments for households earning up to 120 percent of the area median income. The rent-restricted units have to be apartments, while the remaining market-rate units can be apartments or condos.
The law allows projects to rise to the tallest height allowed within a mile of a development site, and to have the highest number of units permitted within a city.
Still, the law sets some parameters, including the zoning districts where the projects can rise, and it also doesn’t exempt developments from meeting local infrastructure concurrency. Municipal staff members are charged with reviewing whether applications meet these guidelines.
“That’s where our local community has a very limited [ability] to fight and to combat these projects. Is it compatible with the area, and does it meet concurrency?” Commissioner Alex Fernandez said. The city’s decision on the Southgate proposal was “an administrative determination by our director when applying our code and the restrictions of Live Local. [The project] was incompatible.”
Live Local boosters argue it’s an additional tool to target Florida’s affordable housing crisis, which is especially pronounced in Miami-Dade County. But opponents have pushed back, saying many of the workforce and affordable units in projects either are smaller or set at the highest allowed rents — those for earners of 120 percent of the AMI — instead of targeting deeper affordability.
“At Southgate Towers, you may have naturally occurring workforce and affordable units of different sizes,” Fernandez said, referring to apartments that aren’t officially restricted to below-market rents but offer lower rates due to a building’s age. “In effect, you could have a real loss of the true type of housing that the community needs when you replace one- and two-bedroom rental units with these micro-units that often get proposed in these buildings.”
Moreover, the replacement of existing apartments with 264 condos takes away needed rentals from the city’s stock, he said.
Miami Beach has pushed back against other Live Local applications. This month, developer Russell Galbut nixed three of his city projects. While he’s still a Live Local believer, Galbut scrapped the developments as a sign of his “commitment to collaboration,” he said.
The decision appears to have come after talks among Galbut, Fernandez and Miami-Dade County Commissioner Vicki Lopez.
Galbut had planned on a 42-story tower with 163 units, 1,700 square feet of commercial space and a 13,400-square-foot private club at 1575 Alton Road. Galbut has said that he subsequently reduced this project to 19 stories and 63 units.
In the smaller proposals, he wanted to build a 28-story, 100-unit building at 740 Alton Road, as well as a 20-story, 120-unit building at 880 71st Street.
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