BH3 joins Dacra and L Catterton to revive Miami Design District office tower with 40% more space

The Ursa, the 20-story office building planned inside Miami's Design District, is coming back after its original partnership failed to land tenants or construction financing — revived with BH3 Management as a partner and roughly 40 percent more space, Commercial Observer reported.

The tower at 30 Northeast 39th Street would hold 250,000 square feet of office above 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail facing North Miami Avenue, near the southwest corner of the open-air mall. Arquitectonica and Daniel Arsham's firm designed it for a partnership of Craig Robins's Dacra and the LVMH-backed private equity firm L Catterton Real Estate, which together with Fort Lauderdale-based BH3 plans to break ground next year and finish in 2029.

The 2022 version, unveiled as out-of-state companies were opening Miami offices after the pandemic, stood 15 stories and 180,000 square feet of office — roughly 40 percent smaller — and never found office tenants or construction financing, leaving the half-acre site vacant. Pre-leasing on the new iteration is not disclosed; a project representative declined to comment.

The revival absorbs the neighboring 11,417-square-foot parcel on North Miami Avenue, which BH3 already owns, and adds a partner Commercial Observer describes as a prominent development firm with a debt arm of its own. That gives the project two things the 2022 version lacked: more room to underwrite, and a partner that can sit on the debt. Whether BH3 funds construction internally or brings in an outside lender is not reported.

The district around the tower, home to Chanel, Prada and Hermes boutiques, has other projects moving; a separate office development broke ground last week behind a $125 million construction loan and leases signed by the private equity firm of billionaire Josh Harris and concierge medical service Atria Health Research. PWD's August coverage tied that same $125 million construction loan to the district's owners, and JBL Asset Management paid $17.3 million for a retail condo on the district's edge. A 25-story condo tower and a 12-story hotel branded by Fouquet's and designed by David Chipperfield are also planned, though that construction has yet to begin.

The office project that broke ground last week had committed tenants and a lender in hand; the coverage does not say whether the Ursa has either. Construction financing before next year's planned groundbreaking is the checkpoint — and it is exactly where the 2022 plan failed.