Would you live in a 320-square-foot apartment? ‘Micro units’ planned in Brickell
Miami has cleared the way for an apartment building in the Brickell area that will include hundreds of “micro units,” apartments as small as 320 square feet.
Members of the city Urban Development Review Board voted without objection on Wednesday to approve the zoning proposal for the building, called 250 SW Brickell.
The project takes advantage of zoning incentives provided by the Live Local Act, which allows developers in Florida to bypass certain zoning restrictions if they designate at least 40% of the units in a building as affordable housing.
Namdar Group, a New York-based developer, and Behar Font, a South Florida architectural firm, are collaborating on the proposed 42-story tower at the intersection of Southwest Seventh Street and Third Avenue in the Brickell area.
The building will have 1,011 apartments, 599 of which will be micro units. Forty percent of the building’s units will be rent-restricted, including a mix of micro units and standard-sized units.
Tenants that make up to 120% of the local median income will be eligible for the affordable housing units at 250 SW Brickell. According to Miami-Dade County’s most recent income cutoffs, a single person making up to around $100,000 per year could qualify for this housing.
Christina Attiyeh, a design director and project manager at Namdar Group, said she doesn’t have the projected rent range for the building’s apartments.
The micro units at 250 SW Brickell required special permission from the city, which was granted at the meeting on Wednesday. These units will range in size from 320 to 424 square feet.
Despite their tiny size, the apartments will have in-unit laundry and large closets, Attiyeh said.
“In a high-demand market like Brickell, these efficient units provide a high-quality, attainable housing solution for professionals who value location and lifestyle over unused square footage,” Attiyeh said.
The next step after getting the board’s approval is to apply for permits from the city, a process that will take about six months, said Iliana Lince, a senior project manager at Behar Font. Lince said after the permitting process is complete, construction of the building is expected to take about a year and a half.
Namdar Group has already built another apartment building with micro units at 222 NE First Ave. in downtown Miami. Attiyeh said following the success of the micro units in that building, Namdar Group decided to design even smaller studio apartments for its next project.
Tenants renting micro units will also have to sacrifice when it comes to parking. The proposal indicates that the building will only have 260 residential parking spaces. City rules don’t require developers building in transit-connected areas to provide nearly as much parking as in more car-dependent areas.
Brian Dombrowski, a lawyer from the firm Greenberg Traurig who presented the proposal on Wednesday, said during the presentation that micro-unit tenants often don’t want or need parking. He added that the proximity to the Brickell Metrorail station and bike storage throughout the building will help residents without cars get around.
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Several review board members praised the building’s “elegant” design, although Manuel Gustavo Gallardo, who represents District 4, criticized the plan for the design of the building’s garage, which is not fully enclosed. He said he doesn’t like the look of open parking garages, and he pushed to recommend the developer reconsider the garage’s design.
One public comment submitted online raised concern about how the building would affect traffic in an already congested area. Dombrowski and Font said their team had studied the flow of traffic as they designed the project.
This story was originally published December 18, 2025 at 5:02 PM.
