Comras Puts a $30M Number on NoLi as Demolition Begins

• Comras Company's NoLi redevelopment carries a $30 million construction budget, on top of the $140M purchase, funded through its existing Acore Capital loan.
• Demolition is already underway, with full-scale construction set to start in September.
• Comras won unanimous sign-off from both Miami Beach's Historic Preservation and Design Review Boards, clearing the way to cut an 18-foot paseo through a shuttered Forever 21.
• Across town, Flag Luxury's Peter Kanavos put new specifics on his car-free 200-300 block plan, chess tables and bocce courts included, but admits there's still no money behind it.

Lincoln Road's two big redevelopment bets both moved forward this month, and the new numbers separate the one that's funded from the one that isn't.

NoLi Gets a Price Tag and a Start Date

Comras Company's plan to turn 11 Lincoln Road and North Lincoln Lane storefronts into NoLi, a 150,000-square-foot boutique district, now has a construction budget: $30 million, financed through the same Acore Capital loan that backed the $140 million purchase in November. Demolition has already started, and Comras expects full-scale construction to take off in September.

The project also cleared its last major hurdle. Miami Beach's Historic Preservation and Design Review Boards both signed off unanimously, greenlighting Via NoLi, an 18-foot-wide paseo carved straight through a shuttered Forever 21 box at the 700 block, connecting through to North Lincoln Lane. A plaza with café seating and a central fountain rounds out the plan, and North Lincoln Lane itself converts from a service alley into a pedestrian street of stores and outdoor seating.

Comras is leasing the district in 400- to 4,000-square-foot bays, a deliberate break from the big-box tenants, Zara, Nike, that have defined the corridor.

"I don't think we should have backs of buildings, not in an urban environment. Everything should be a front."

He's framed the fragmented ownership across the street as the real obstacle to any single fix.

"You have 40 different property owners who cross a million square feet. Everybody has a different agenda."

Kanavos Names the Plan, Not the Money

At the east end, Peter Kanavos of Flag Luxury Group, speaking on behalf of Sobe Sky Development, a partnership between the Ben-Josef, Lowenstein and Kanavos families that owns the Sagamore and The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach hotels, put fresh detail on its long-discussed 200-300 block concept. Because assembling that stretch's fragmented ownership isn't realistic, the plan instead pours investment into the public right-of-way: permanently closing the roadway to traffic and building landscaped islands with food and beverage concepts, small retail spaces, a performance stage, chess tables and bocce courts.

"If you cannot use the existing properties to activate the street, use the street to activate the existing properties."

That's the larger phase. The funded piece is the $12 million 100-block overhaul, split roughly three ways between Sobe Sky Development, the state and the city, covering wider pedestrian paths, landscaping and an art walk running to the beach.

The 200-300 block has no such backing yet, and Kanavos said so plainly.

"The big problem there is money. The city doesn't have the money to do this right now."

He said the concept has drawn endorsements from nearby property owners, condo associations and civic groups, but he won't file anything with the Miami Beach commission until a financing plan, a public-private mix rather than a conventional bank loan, comes together.

The Backdrop: Vacancy Is Down, Rent Is Down Too

Lincoln Road BID president Lyle Stern put new numbers on the corridor's recovery: 80 percent occupancy, not counting pending leases, with many of the storefronts that look empty actually leased and stuck waiting on permits or build-outs. Miami Beach's direct retail vacancy rate came in at 4.4 percent this quarter, according to Colliers. Asking rents have settled at $120 to $200 per square foot, down from the $300 peak of a decade ago, though insurance and property taxes alone can run $30 to $70 per square foot and get passed straight to tenants.

Comras now has a budget, a loan and a September start date. Kanavos has the design and the endorsements but not yet the check. The next milestone to watch is whether Kanavos can land that financing before Comras' cranes are running.