Crescent Heights Proposes New 700 Alton Road Retail Project

Developers Crescent Heights are proposing a multilevel retail project on Alton Road next to their stalled SoBe Park mixed-use megaproject, at 709-745 Alton Road, aptly named 700 Alton Road. The site, an existing surface lot and adjacent vacant parcel, abuts single-story residential units to the east and the two block wide dirt hole that was the SoBe Park project and is now the staging area for the Alton Road reconstruction. It will including multiple levels of retail and parking.

Early renderings, by architects Perkins+Will, that appeared on exMiami show a smaller, and perhaps more appropriately scaled design, than what Crescent Heights had planned at SoBe Park. The proposal includes up to 64,000 square feet of retail on both the ground level and seemingly floating, Juvia-esque fourth floor enclosed in what looks like an undulating glass wall. Parking on the second and third levels will have a total of 172 spaces. Like the nearby project at 929 Alton, the design smacks of the famous 1111 Lincoln Road, just up Alton. (could this be Alton Road’s new “look”?) The design has strong horizontals, minimal structure, and what we can assume will be cable railings to expose cars on the parking decks. A sleek floating concrete slab provides shading for a green roof/amenity terrace overlooking South Beach’s eclectic low-rise residential neighborhoods to the east.—Margina Demmer