MIAMI BEACH-The Historic Preservation Board has granted approval for Lincoln East, a 161-unit condominium, on the L-shape parcel at 1601 Drexel Ave. The location is on the 400 block at the eastern entryway to the historic Lincoln Road pedestrian mall.

The developer is locally based Lincoln East Development Group. Paul Cejas, president of the company's parent PLC Investments Inc., acquired this parcel and the adjacent L-shape parcel containing the historic Art Deco-style Mercantile National Bank Building at 420 Lincoln Rd. between 1996 and 1997 for approximately $17 million, according to Glenn Boyer, Lincoln East's director of development. Cejas, former US ambassador to Belgium, restored the bank building following its acquisition in 1997, and it will remain intact.

"We will tear down three existing buildings at 1601 Drexel to make way for Lincoln East," Boyer tells GlobeSt.com. He estimates the project cost at $40 million. In addition to for-sale condos, the property will contain 6,000 sf of retail and a 500-car parking area. "The parking will be hidden on the interior of the block," he says. The project is designed by Enrique Norton of Ten Arquitectos, which is based in New York City and Mexico City, and was recently awarded the design contract for the Guggenheim Museum in Guadalajara.

Condo units will range from 650 sf to just under 2,000 sf, Boyer says. Prices will begin at $350,000, "and 95% of the units will be between that and $750,000," he says, "with the four largest ones to sell for more." Douglas Elliman Florida is handling sales and marketing, which will begin this summer. Boyer expects the project to reach completion in first quarter 2008.

Under its agreement with the city, the developer will also help restore elements of the late Morris Lapidus' original 1960 Lincoln Road mall design. "It was altered in the 1980s," Boyer says, "and our plan is to either restore or replicate design elements according to Lapidus' influences."