A new mixed-use proposal for 930 and 960 Alton Road would replace existing retail and office buildings with a 134,135-square-foot commercial-led building designed by Arquitectonica. The application is easy to misread as a residential project because it includes four residential-office units. The program, however, is dominated by 37,037 square feet of net Class-A office space, with only 760 square feet of ground-floor retail and a limited residential-office component. The City of Miami Beach has placed the application on its December 8, 2026 Planning Board agenda; the hearing is a review milestone, not an approval or construction start. The official Planning Board agenda lists PB26-0864 among the new applications and includes revised architectural and landscape plan entries dated November 5, plus a supplemental architectural sheet dated November 6.
A commercial building with a limited residential component
The October 2 letter of intent filed by MEDIA HOLDINGS 930 LLC and MEDIA HOLDINGS LTD describes a 0.719-acre site—31,309 square feet of gross lot area—at the southwest corner of Alton Road and 10th Street, bounded on the west by Alton Court. The property is currently improved with retail and office buildings. The applicants propose demolishing those structures and replacing them with a mixed-use commercial, office and residential-office building. The applicants’ letter of intent is the source for the project program and cost estimate summarized here.
The proposed building is described at approximately 134,135 gross square feet, with a floor-area ratio of 2.00. Those are two separate metrics in the application: gross building area and zoning floor-area ratio should not be treated as interchangeable without the full area calculation and applicable exclusions. The letter does not provide a complete floor-by-floor FAR worksheet.
What the application says the building contains
The program is organized around office use above a ground-floor retail and lobby frontage, with parking enclosed in three pedestal levels and amenities placed at ground level, on Level 4 and on the roof.
- 37,037 square feet of net Class-A office space across Levels 4 through 8.
- Four residential-office units on Levels 4 and 5. The letter describes two Level 4 units, each with approximately 1,623 square feet of office use and 1,000 square feet of residential living area; it also describes two Level 5 units with different overall areas.
- Approximately 760 square feet of ground-floor retail facing Alton Road.
- Approximately 7,202 square feet of ground-floor and Level 4 amenity space, including a lobby, coffee bar, conference room, mail and package room, gym, kitchen, sauna, steam room and locker area.
- A separate rooftop terrace of approximately 5,675 square feet beneath an open architectural trellis.
- 106 vehicle parking spaces, 40 bicycle spaces and two loading spaces. The applicants say the vehicle count meets the requirement and the bicycle count exceeds the stated minimum.
Four residential-office units are not a conventional apartment tower
The residential component matters, but it should be described precisely. The filing calls the units “residential-office” units, not a conventional rental apartment inventory or a condominium sales program. It does not provide apartment pricing, rents, a unit mix comparable to a residential tower, preleasing figures or a residential sales offering. For real-estate analysis, the proposal is primarily an office-led commercial building with a small residential-office component; the four units should not be treated as a meaningful new apartment supply block.
The 93-foot-8-inch height request is a separate entitlement question
The applicants propose a building height of 93 feet 8 inches. Their letter says the property is within the Alton Road Office Development Overlay and that the overlay’s voluntary office-height incentive program provides a 75-foot height allowance for the relevant development path. Because the proposed height exceeds that figure, the applicants have filed a companion Commission Warrant request under Section 2.7.1 of the Resiliency Code.
The height request is not a routine detail that can be assumed to pass with the site plan. The filing identifies a separate Design Review Board application, DRB26-1198, for site-plan approval and the Commission Warrant. The City’s Resiliency Code portal is the official source for the current Land Development Regulations. The applicant’s October letter states the 75-foot overlay benchmark and explains why it is seeking additional height; the City’s boards have not yet decided the request.
Flood adaptation is part of the design brief—not a completed engineering finding
The applicants describe a flood-resilient ground floor and say that habitable lobby, retail and amenity areas will be elevated consistently with base flood elevation plus City of Miami Beach freeboard. The letter also states that critical mechanical and electrical systems will be located above base flood elevation, that the ground floor, driveways and garage ramps will be designed to accommodate a future public-right-of-way elevation increase of up to three feet, and that the project will include on-site stormwater retention.
The application also proposes hurricane-impact windows and resilient, Florida-friendly landscaping. Cool or porous pavement is described as something to be used where feasible and appropriate. These are applicant design commitments and statements of intent. The letter says the final ground-floor, driveway and ramp adaptation will be confirmed through civil-engineering plans. The materials reviewed for this report do not establish a site-specific flood-zone determination, an approved flood model, a final elevation certificate or a completed engineering review.
Why the distinction matters
A design narrative can identify how a project intends to respond to flooding, sea-level rise and future street elevation changes. It does not, by itself, demonstrate that every proposed measure has been accepted by the City or that the final construction documents will match the concept. Buyers, neighboring owners and future tenants should look for the approved civil plans, floodplain review, equipment elevations and permit conditions before treating the resilience package as a delivered building feature.
The street edge, parking and amenity strategy
The proposal places three enclosed parking levels inside the building rather than presenting an open parking podium as the dominant street-facing element. The applicants say parking, loading and back-of-house functions will be screened within the pedestal levels. The ground floor is intended to carry the lobby and a small amount of retail onto Alton Road, while the principal office floors sit above.
The access plan would retain existing curb cuts along Alton Road and the alley closest to 10th Street, while relocating the existing 10th Street curb cut slightly south to serve the parking ramp. The applicants present this as a way to avoid expanding vehicle access points. The practical pedestrian result will depend on the final curb-cut location, sidewalk clear width, landscape plan, loading operations and the way the ramp meets the street.
The Level 4 outdoor terrace is proposed to include a basketball court, padel court and putting green. Those amenities, together with the rooftop terrace, give the building a private-amenity program more commonly associated with high-end office or mixed-use projects than a conventional neighborhood office block. They are proposed features, not completed facilities.
The November revisions are on the docket; their final effect still needs review
The official December 8 agenda lists revised landscape plans and revised architectural plans dated November 5, 2026, along with a supplemental sheet A-102 dated November 6. That confirms the application package continued to evolve after the October 2 letter of intent. The public agenda identifies those documents, but the revised sheets were not independently inspected in this reporting run because the City’s attachment endpoint returned an unsupported binary response in the available retrieval environment.
For that reason, the October 2 letter is used as the source for the program figures in this article, and the November 5–6 revisions are treated as later docket materials whose precise effect on the design remains to be confirmed. The revised sheets could refine the massing, landscape or technical details; this report does not assume that they leave every October metric unchanged.
How 930 Alton fits the surrounding corridor
The site is at the southwest corner of Alton Road and 10th Street, just east of West Avenue and near the Biscayne Bay waterfront. The applicants describe the surrounding area as a mix of low- and mid-rise commercial, office and multifamily buildings, with Whole Foods, Walgreens and other businesses nearby. Their stated planning rationale is to reinforce a pedestrian-oriented commercial and office corridor rather than introduce a stand-alone residential tower.
Tryphe has separately examined the 1771 West Avenue proposal and Miami Beach’s NoLi district and Lincoln Road changes. Those are different sites and proceedings, but they help explain why the relationship between office, residential use, pedestrian access and public-realm design is becoming a recurring issue in Miami Beach land-use review.
What happens next
The Planning Board is scheduled to hear PB26-0864 on Tuesday, December 8, 2026, at 9:00 a.m. The official meeting page provides the hybrid-meeting information and lists the application among the new items. The agenda notice states that applications may be continued, so the scheduled date is not a guarantee of a final vote.
- Planning Board review of the Conditional Use request for a Neighborhood Impact Structure, because the proposed building exceeds 50,000 square feet.
- Design Review Board consideration of the site plan and the companion Commission Warrant request under DRB26-1198.
- City review of the traffic analysis. The October letter says the applicants have prepared an analysis but that it will be submitted under separate cover after the City Transportation Department approves the study methodology.
- Later civil, building, demolition and other permit reviews. The Planning Board hearing is not a building permit and does not authorize construction.
The applicant’s October letter gives an approximate project cost estimate of $36 million. That is an applicant-supplied estimate, not a verified financing package, construction contract, appraisal or independent cost review. The filing does not establish a construction loan, tenant preleasing, residential sales, a closing date or a construction start.
The real-estate read
The most useful way to underwrite 930 Alton is to start with what it is—and what it is not. It is a proposed office-led commercial building with four residential-office units, a small retail frontage, enclosed parking and a substantial private amenity program. It is not a conventional residential tower, and the four residential-office units should not be counted as a meaningful new apartment supply block.
Its design case rests on the quality of the street frontage, the handling of parking, the rooftop and Level 4 amenities, and the applicant’s flood-adaptation commitments. Its entitlement case rests on the conditional-use review, the requested height above the 75-foot overlay benchmark, Design Review Board approval and the traffic and civil documentation still to be resolved. The next meaningful evidence is the City’s action and the final approved plan set—not the marketing description of a “high-design” building.
For owners and investors along Alton Road, the December hearing is worth tracking because it may clarify how Miami Beach applies its office overlay and resiliency standards to a new mixed-use building. Until the boards act and later permits are issued, the project remains a proposal.
Reporting sources and image credits
Primary municipal record: City of Miami Beach Planning Board hybrid meeting, December 8, 2026, including PB26-0864 and the November 5–6 revised-plan entries.
Application document: October 2, 2026 Letter of Intent for PB26-0864 submitted by MEDIA HOLDINGS 930 LLC and MEDIA HOLDINGS LTD.
Regulatory reference: City of Miami Beach Resiliency Code / Land Development Regulations and Planning & Zoning Department.
Public permit research: Miami Beach Civic Access provides public search for permits, plans, inspections, code cases and projects.
Image credits: Ivan Curra (CC BY-SA 3.0); Marc Averette (CC BY-SA 3.0); Clément Bardot (CC BY-SA 4.0); Phillip Pessar (CC BY 2.0); and P. Hughes (CC BY 4.0). All photographs are contextual Miami Beach imagery, not images of the proposed 930 Alton Road building. Each license permits reuse with attribution; the captions and Sanity asset metadata preserve the applicable credit and license.