PointeGroup presents project before Village Council

Last night, representatives from The PointeGroup Advisors, spoke before the Coconut Grove Village Council regarding their Village West project, which spans Grand Avenue from Margaret Street on the east to Plaza Street on the west, between Florida and Thomas Avenues. Peter Gardner, head of the PointeGroup was present with Margaret Nee, Vice President of Development for Pointe Group and Patrick Range, from the Range Funeral Home and area land owner. Patrick, shown here, did most of the talking.

The project is ever changing and surprisingly The PointeGroup only owns two of the six lots planned for development. They feel that they will acquire the rest and proceed with their plans in the next year or two. Even so, "for sale" signs still line properties up and down Grand Avenue, awaiting a higher bidder, which worries the neighbors.

The neighbors have filed an injunction to reverse the land use change. They want the zoning to revert back to residential and they want parks to remain parks and not be turned into development. They want the character of the neighborhood to remain single family homes, not commercial development.

From the injunction: "There is no evidence that, as far as this community is concerned that the Defendant has a legal or moral right to alter this community in any manner without taking into consideration the needs of this community as a whole, which this request represents . . ."

The injunction may be read here.

Publix is part of the project, but if the project drags on any longer, a reverter clause could change the zoning back to residential and the commerical project could not be built. The rest of the project consists of more retail, office space and affordable housing in the form of rentals -- townhomes (the yellow images near the Publix shown above) and small houses, on Florida Avenue (shown in the upper left of the diagram).


The image above are the houses planned for Florida Avenue. PointeGroup decreased the amount of office space up and down Grand Avenue in order to add more affordable apartments there. Underground parking, which was part of the original plan, will not happen now. The surface and garage parking will be masked by foliage and will wrap around the buildings. The maximum height is 5 stories in some areas, which is 62 feet.

The PointeGroup still needs to go before the City Commission, possibly in May and before that they need to have a MUSP (Major Use Special Permit) approved. The developer has already been meeting with area residents, but again, most residents are concerned with the change taking place in their neighborhood.

If the development does proceed, the farmers market will be given space in an surface parking lot, if they wish to continue operating in the area and businesses that are now part of the property will be accommodated into the new buildings, according to Patrick Range.

The PointeGroup is hoping that the project will be completed by the end of 2012 into early 2013, but from the sighs in the audience last night and the impending injunction, which was not brought up or discussed at last night's meeting, things could be delayed.