A rendering of the planned 49-story, 646-unit X Biscayne tower developed by Property Markets Group at 400 Biscayne Blvd. Credit: Rendering by Sieger Suarez Architects LLC. A rendering of the planned 49-story, 646-unit X Biscayne tower developed by Property Markets Group at 400 Biscayne Blvd. Credit: Rendering by Sieger Suarez Architects LLC.

A 49-story apartment tower proposed — with some zoning deviations — to fill one of the last blanks in Biscayne Boulevard's high-rise canyon wall in downtown Miami is headed for city review.

New York-based PMG plans to build a 646-unit building, including 47,902 square feet of offices and 3,006 square feet of commercial-retail space, at 400 Biscayne Blvd. The tower would rise nearly 562 feet and include a garage with 527 parking spaces.

The Miami Urban Development Review Board, comprised of volunteer residents, will consider the project and proposed waiver next Wednesday. The advisory board will make a recommendation to the planning director to approve, approve with conditions or deny it.

The developer of the apartment tower, dubbed PMG X Biscayne, in its application asked for a waiver from Miami 21, the city's guide for development, in part because part of the garage on the second story will front Biscayne and Northeast Fifth Street. This means some spots would be right up to the facade.

“Waivers are not major things,” said city planner Joseph Eisenberg, the board liaison. “This specific waiver for parking on the second layer is more substantial because parking garages could look really great or parking garages could look really bad.”

One of the things PMG is proposing is a project by Miami artist Andrew Antonaccio depicting a couple kissing on a beach, according to the application. It would be on the Fifth Street side of the building.

The tower would rise on the site of the demolished First United Methodist Church of Miami, which in January 2018 sold the 1.15-acre site to PMG for $55 million. The church offered seller financing, and the sale included a provision allowing the church, temporarily at 245 NW Eighth St., to return to the property.

A 25,000-square-foot space spanning 10 floors has been reserved on the corner of Biscayne and Fifth Street, according to the Rev. Audrey Warren. Stained glass preserved from its former building will create a kaleidoscope effect, and the church will own its section of the new building.

The tower is part of PMG's X Social Communities portfolio of apartment towers it's developing in major U.S. cities and is its second XSC project in Miami. The finished 64-unit X Miami at 230 NE Fourth St. is next door. Also in the pipeline is the 650-unit first phase of X Las Olas in downtown Fort Lauderdale, to be finished in 2020.

The XSC projects, which are a deviation from PMG's traditional work of building luxury condominiums, target millennials seeking a community lifestyle. Amenities at X Miami include an 18th-floor dog park, a two-level co-working lab, screening lounge and gym.

X Biscayne doesn't need City Commission approval because the site already has the zoning needed for a multifamily tower. In fact, it's not even reaching the maximum development threshold allowed — 80 floors.

The developer's attorney, Bilzin Sumberg partner Javier Avino in Miami, said construction will start as soon as approval is granted and permits are in hand.

Much of Biscayne Boulevard from the Miami River to Interstate 395 has filled up with office and condo towers in recent years, and construction is adding high-rises to some of the few remaining holes. The late Zaha Hadid designed the One Thousand Museum tower nearing completion at 1000 Biscayne Blvd. The 17-story Freedom Tower at 600 Biscayne Blvd. has been dwarfed by many of its neighbors.

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