River Landing project gets taller

One of the buildings for a large development in Miami will be two stories taller than expected when it opens next year.

The River Landing Shops and Residences, already under construction, includes 25- and

23-story towers for 528 rental apartments on the Miami River. It also will include a building for retail shopping, but that has now been redesigned to reach seven stories — an increase of two floors.

That will make way for

135,000 square feet of offices that will occupy the top three floors.

River Landing, on the Miami River west of downtown Miami, is a $424.8 million mixed-use development on 8 acres.

It’s in what’s known as the “health district,” an area that has a large concentration of medical and research facilities, including the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, Jackson Memorial Hospital and the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute.

And those employers create “a captive market in the health care industry,” said Andrew Hellinger, a principal with Coral Gables-based Urban X Group, which is the developer of River Landing. He said he also expects to attract tenants who want “to have a convenient office space without getting into the congestion of the downtown core.”

The original plan was to lease the top floors to traditional retailers, Hellinger said.

Plans changed in December when officials noted the office vacancy rate in the Health District “is nil,” he said. “We think there is pent-up demand. There is no available office space.”

The office space will have its own outdoor terrace and views of the Miami River and Miami’s skyline, and private elevators.

River Landing is scheduled to open in early 2020 and the retail tenants include a TJ Maxx, Ross Dress for Less, Publix, Burlington Stores, Chase Bank, GNC, AT&T, and Hobby Lobby.

RIVER LANDING SHOPS & RESIDENCE/COURTESY Plans for the River Landing Shops and Residences, near downtown Miami, have been redesigned.