A Little History of Grand Avenue 1994-2017

Grovite Andy Parrish Jr. sent this in. It's quite interesting.


A little research into the history of zoning in Village West Island District might help everyone understand how complex this is. But CAVEAT, some of this goes back to 1994, the year I started Wind & Rain, and my memory may not be what I think it once was. This is not intended to point fingers at anyone, or to spread rumors, but just to clarify what has happened since my partner and I built the first  privately funded “affordable” home in West Grove in 50 years -a 3BR/2BA house on Frow Avenue that we sold to courageous postal worker Cheryl Ogletree for $79,000. The lot cost less than $5,000.

Before Miami 21, there was the Miami 11000  zoning code. Under Miami 11000, most of Grand Avenue from Margaret Street to Douglas Road was zoned O Office, which allowed “unlimited” height, EXCEPT there were still parking requirements that had to be met that effectively limited the height.

Meanwhile, under the guidance of Richard Shepard and his wife, Luce Fellow Samina Quaereshi ,the Center for Urban and Community Design (CUCD) at the University of Miami on their own initiative partnered with Thelma Gibson and Village West HOATA, Dean Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and others from West Grove to come up with a “Vision Plan” for Grand Avenue.  After maybe a half dozen charrettes and community forums at Virrick Park, the CUCD produced and published a “Vision Plan” which envisioned two and three story commercial buildings on Grand Avenue, with parking in heavily landscaped lots in between the buildings. The existing “tombstone” apartment buildings were to be phased out, although there would be additional residential on the upper two floors of the new buildings. It was also envisioned that Grand Avenue (only 70 ft wide) would have a trolley circulating up and down the middle of it with one lane for cars on either side. We built the “Grand Island Building” at Douglas and Grand, incorporating and transforming the notorious Gil’s Spot Bar, using a CUCD student design, hoping to show what Grand could become.

Then, as fate would have it, the legendary “best landlords ever,” the Blumenthal Family, who owned 89 or more properties in West Grove, including all of the “green and white” wooden residences,and most of the apartments and many of the stores on Grand, were sued in a case where the Blumenthal Family ultimately prevailed.  As David Blumenthal told me, the family trust decided that the cost of litigation was not worth it, and David asked me and my then partner Andy Charles if we could raise the money to purchase the whole portfolio (except for some residences that the family GAVE to long term elderly tenants) for $8 Million. Andy and I tried to raise the money, but the Blumenthals had kept the rents so low for so long that the investors we talked to said the properties were worth only $4 Million, maybe $5 Million tops.

The Blumenthal Trust then listed the properties with Jackie Huttoe, as separate properties, and in less than 12 months Jackie had sold all of them for $13 Million, including a bunch of the apartment buildings to the Muskat-Marrero-Diaz group,and a bunch of others to Greater St. Paul’s Church. Andy Charles and I bought the package liquor store next to our “Grove Island” building on Grand, and also the 4 shotgun houses on Grand in the Coral Gables section, plus one apartment building on Frow Avenue.

The Muskat-Marrero-Diaz group hoped the existing “O” zoning would allow them to build 10+  story condos on Grand, and formed all those "Island Named" companies dividing the properties into development parcels.  Meanwhile, Richard Shepard led the charge for creating and implementing  the NCD-2 which limited the height on Grand to “62 ft or 5 stories.”  Then Greater St Paul’s lost their holdings to foreclosure which were bought by various investors, including, I believe,  Pointe Group, Peter Gardner’s company.

Pointe proceeded to do a new Master Plan for all of Grand Avenue, which included all of the Muskat-Marrero-Diaz properties, and, from what I understand, structured a kind of option contract to buy them “contingent on zoning approval.” Pointe also proceeded to buy several T3 properties on both Florida and Thomas Avenues (the “back”of Grand Avenue) in order to provide parking for Grand Avenue redevelopment since the frontage on Grand has only 90 ft depth, and less than that with setbacks. To Mr. Gardner’s credit, he handled negotiations with the leadership of Margaret Nee so that no one was displaced, all got above market prices, and at least in one case, a brand new 3BR 2BA house. The plan also included “liner” townhouses to buffer the other T-3 homes on Florida and Thomas. These are just a few of the reasons Pointe’s redevelopment proposal originally got so much community support.

Then fate interceded once again and Miami 21 was approved replacing Miami 11000. But Mr. Gardner had had the foresight to obtain a Major Use Special Permit (MUSP) which preserved his development rights up to 62 ft for most or all of the properties. But Mr. Gardner had not counted on the “Sewer Moratorium” (remember that?) which stopped ALL development in Coconut Grove for the next year or two.  Then for reasons I am unaware of, the contract with the Muskat Group dissolved into numerous as yet unresolved lawsuits.

As I said at the beginning of this overlong but overdue history, it may contain inadvertent errors for which I can only blame a faulty memory.  There is no intent to libel or misrepresent anyone or any group. If  anyone or anything is to blame for the creation of what I call “The Land that Time Forgot,” it is a relic from Miami 11000 that has Grand Avenue’s and Douglas Avenue’s Miami 21 T-5 mixed use zoning immediately adjacent to T-3 residential with no intervening T-4 transition.

Respectfully submitted,
Anthony R. Parrish, Jr.  
Coconut Grove