Construction is Transforming the ‘Entrance’ to Miami Beach, Around a Hostile Intersection in Need of Change Too

July 7, 2016

Photos by Sean McCaughan.

Multiple construction projects just north of the intersection of 5th Street and Alton Road are transforming the face of the street in that area, from a series underutilized and neglected lots near the prime entrance to Miami Beach to an attractively urban cityscape. The obtuse intersection however, notable for its flyover from the MacArthur Causeway and hostility to pedestrians, has yet to follow with a makeover. I almost died taking the photo above.

On the east side of Alton, at 6th Street, the very attractively designed Urban Box Self Storage (how often is self storage sexy, really?) is well under construction. North of it, developers Crescent Heights (which is dominating new developing all along Alton with a series of quite fetchingly designed buildings) are building a new healthcare center for Baptist Hospital. Construction has already broken ground on that. Last, and by far the biggest, Crescent Heights is clearing and gutting two entire blocks it owns between 5th and 7th on the west side of Alton while lobbying the city for permission to construct a 300-foot tower on the land in exchange for building a new mass transit hub in the base. Until then, a 7-11 still sits splat in the middle of his land even though the convenience store’s old parking lot is half buried under the mountain of an elevated street.

In five years, and again in ten, the main entrance to Miami Beach is destined to look very different than today.