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neighborhood, Robins also focuses
on design innovation on parking. The City View Garage, which
opened in spring 2015, “advertises
“ design, architecture and art to
the adjacent interstate highway
with facades by New York- and San
Francisco-based design ;rms Leong
Leong and Iwamoto Scott as well as
murals by artist John Baldessari.
In keeping with Robins’ mission of
selling design with designer architecture, the latest developments
in the district include buildings by
globally respected architects Sou
Fujimoto, Aranda\Lasch and K/R
(Keenen/Riley). Art installations in
and around the district’s buildings
by well-known artists and designers
like Konstantin Grcic, Zaha Hadid,
Marc Newson, Xavier Veilhan and
the Buckminster Fuller Institute
have been used as backdrops for
fashion shoots and district branding.
Robins has envisioned and continues to create a walkable outdoor
neighborhood — not a mall — set
into the core of the city that is
unique, authentic, engaging, aspi-rational and, most of all, delightful.
The value of his initial $320 million
investment has increased to $1.4
billion. The reimagination of the
district has attracted investors from
New York and overseas who have
bid up land prices dramatically. One
22,248-square-foot retail furniture
showroom building sold in January
2015 for $26 million, equating
to $1,906 per square foot for the
two-story building. The property was
previously purchased in 2009 for
$2.5 million; the showroom, which
opened in 2011, cost $4 million to
develop.
In November 2014, General Growth
Properties and Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. teamed up to acquire a
20 percent stake in Dacra’s Miami
Design District holdings for $280
million. Future development plans
for the district include a new art-;lled plaza surrounded by retail
buildings and destination restaurants; a new Institute of Contemporary Art Miami (ICA) building by
Spanish architects Aranguren +
Gallegos; a 10-story hotel and an
associated residential building
designed by Neri & Hu and Studio
Gang, respectively; and additional
design showrooms.
