MIAMI-In mid-May, the developers of the $140 million 396 Alhambra project, a two-tower office development in downtown Coral Gables, began phase II of their 268-square-foot development. The 15-story, 173,000-square foot tower, which is scheduled for completion in December 2011, has been pre-certified LEED-Gold. It is the first new Class A office building to be built in Coral Gables in years.

Meanwhile, Phase I of the project, which is the rehab of an existing, 1960s-era office building, is underway and is scheduled for completion in December 2010. The soon-to-be renovated building, which is pre-certified as a LEED-Silver existing structure, will have 95,000 square feet. Citibank, which occupied a 6,000-square-foot building at the complex, before it was demolished to make way for Phase II, will occupy 5,500-square feet in this building during the rehab process, then go into the second tower in approximately 18 months, where it will also occupy 5,500 square feet. Also a part of Phase I is the construction of a 884-space, eight-story, parking garage with 13,000-square feet of restaurant space.

The 396 Alhambra development is being financed largely by an affiliate of the multi-national Jose Cuervo Group of Mexico City. The local partners are Miami developers Eduardo “Eddie” Avila and Jack Kaplan. Avila, in the 1980s, played an important role in the redevelopment of Brickell Avenue and South Beach.