Downtown Miami to Welcome New Melo Group High-Rise Property

By Jeffrey Steele, Contributing

Miami—Melo Group, a Miami-based real estate developer, has announced plans to build Melody Tower, a 36-story residential property in the heart of Miami’s arts and entertainment district. The 497-unit luxury high-rise will replace a parking lot in a residentially underserved area of downtown Miami currently peppered with vacant lots and decrepit warehouse structures.

While a tide of luxurious new condominiums are rising in Miami’s downtown core, high-rise rental buildings in that district are rare. The condos carry price tags that are often outside the budgets of professionals working in the Brickell area and downtown Miami, two of South Florida’s largest job centers. That makes a large apartment project a natural for the highly walkable downtown area.

Melody Tower will additionally provide 8,500 square feet of ground floor restaurant and retail space. Construction is slated to commence next month and be completed in May 2015.

“We are focusing on building housing for local people who work and live in Miami,” Carlos Melo, principal of Melo Group, tells MHN.

“Our rentals you can compare with a condominium. It is the same quality you have in a condominium. Our company is a vertically integrated company. We are the designers, general contractors and we own and manage the building. That means we can price our apartments more fairly for the local market.”

Today, those attending shows at the adjacent Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts must get back in their cars following a show and motor to Miami’s suburbs for a post-show dinner. The restaurant space Melody Tower will deliver stands to help revitalize the area and cater to those theatergoers. Those eateries will offer outdoor seating in a plaza anchoring the development at 14^th St. and Second Ave., helping promote a pedestrian-friendly environment.

In addition to the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, which is one of the largest performing arts centers in Florida, downtown Miami’s arts and entertainment district houses a number of other treasures.

They include the Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) and the Patricia & Phillip Frost Museum of Science, as well as American Airlines Arena.

“With the arts and entertainment district building momentum as a world-class cultural epicenter in the Southeast, one thing is still lacking,” says Melo. “[That is] a luxury residential community that serves young professionals who work in the area. At Melody, professionals seeking an urban lifestyle will enjoy a family-friendly atmosphere in a walkable neighborhood.”

He adds that Melo Group has built a reputation for entering emerging areas with luxury multifamily projects that help spark neighborhood renewal.

Says Melo: “We see tremendous potential in the arts and entertainment district, and believe our rental community, including prime restaurant space, will fill the demand among professionals who have a taste for world-class cultural events. Melody [fills] a missing dimension in this emerging district.”