After years of talk and not much action, dirt is finally moving at 700 North Miami Avenue, the long-planned three-tower makeover of the former Miami Arena site in Downtown Miami. The opening act is set to be a roughly 600-foot residential tower with nearly 900 apartments and ground-floor retail, the first piece of a master plan that aims to eventually stack more than 2,300 homes around a large multi-level parking structure. Developers Witkoff Group and Monroe Capital are pressing ahead after locking in major construction financing.
Project details and scope
According to Florida YIMBY, the development is slated to rise in three phases with towers of 50, 51 and 53 stories. The first building is expected to reach about 600 feet, with 894 residential units stacked over roughly 17,367 square feet of space at street level for shops and other retail. The full plan calls for a nine-story parking garage and, once all three towers are built out, about 2,346 residences, more than 30,000 square feet of commercial space and around 2,078 parking spaces. Coastal Construction is listed as the general contractor on the job, the outlet reports.
Financing clears the way
Witkoff and Monroe Capital have lined up more than $300 million to cover the first phase, according to the South Florida Business Journal, which detailed a roughly $302 million construction loan on July 20. That cash infusion appears to have been the green light for crews to finally roll onto the long-vacant site after years of design work, planning and permitting.
From arena site to transit-oriented housing
Witkoff and Monroe picked up the five-acre parcel in 2021 for $94 million, according to a project page on Monroe Capital, which notes the lot sits next to MiamiCentral and the Miami Worldcenter master plan. The developers have repeatedly highlighted the site's direct access to Brightline and downtown transit as a key reason to load the property up with dense residential development.
Permits, timeline and next steps
Preconstruction permit activity, including filings for dewatering and tree removal, was logged by Florida YIMBY in 2024 as the team geared up for foundation work. The outlet notes that timelines for the second and third towers are still not public. With sitework now underway, crews are expected to move through dewatering, utility work and foundation construction first. Full completion dates for the three-tower complex have not yet been announced.
What to watch
Witkoff's project page presents 700 North Miami Avenue as a dense, transit-oriented residential hub, and the coming months should reveal whether the team can keep pace with the permits and delivery targets it has been setting since buying the land. Neighbors and downtown commuters can expect the usual heavy equipment, material staging and some temporary lane shifts as the project advances from site prep into full-on vertical construction.
