Coral Gables to begin talks with Allen Morris/Related on mixed-use garages

After more than an hour of deliberating with developers and city staff, the Coral Gables City Commission voted to move forward with the redevelopment of two city-owned garages off of Miracle Mile.

Staff will begin working with the top-ranked bidder, Coral Gables City Center, on the redevelopment of the garages at 245 and 345 Andalusia Avenue into mixed-use projects with high-tech parking systems, retail and office space, and apartments. The Allen Morris Company and the Related Group are partnering on the city center proposal with designs by Zyscovich Architects.

The city has up to six months to negotiate with Coral Gables City Center, and if those talks are fruitless, it can move onto the second-ranked bidder, TC Gables LLC, for up to another six months. The proposals are subject to change, but city center’s included retail space on the ground floor, apartment units above the parking (featuring a smart parking system), in buildings that have a combined 27,800 square feet of commercial space, 140,000 square feet of office space, nearly 1,600 parking spaces and 244 luxury apartments.

The second group is led by Terranova, Zom and Gibson Development with Arquitectonica as the designer. Included in the TC Gables proposal is a building that Terranova owns on the corner of Miracle Mile and Ponce de Leon Boulevard, a combined 328 apartments, more than 1,800 parking spaces, and 50,700 square feet of retail space.

At Tuesday’s meeting, both development groups presented their plans, including videos from the city center project. The commission questioned whether the city would be operating the garage and whether it would retain ownership of the public parking – both points commissioners focused on. Commissioner Pat Keon said more discussion was needed to determine what the staff would be negotiating if a motion was passed.

Commissioners Jeanette Slesnick and vice mayor Frank Quesada moved to pass the resolution, allowing the city to progress on the redevelopment of Garages 1 and 4, a move that is not a binding agreement with the developer and one that the commission can modify.

“This has been going on since 1998,” Slesnick said. “It’s about time we get some new parking garages.”