A luxury mixed-use project is seeking to build three extra stories above the maximum allowed for the area, but with details still scarce, city officials say the announcement is premature.
The Well Coconut Grove, a luxury mixed-use housing development proposed in Center Grove on the site of the former Marriott Residence Inn has not been approved for eight-stories – three more than typically allowed under Miami’s zoning code – despite releasing marketing materials last month that show the additional height.
“No entitlement has been issued for this project,” city planning officials confirmed for the Spotlight by email. An entitlement is a declaration of allowable land-use rights awarded to a development site.
The property, on the corner of Tigertail Avenue and Mary Street, sits within a zoning district limiting new construction to five stories. After purchasing the site in 2021 for just under $22 million, a development team led by Coconut Grove-based Terra Group floated plans for a five-story apartment complex.
But in late 2023 the group submitted plans to the city’s Building Department for an eight-story luxury condo tower with ground floor retail, a health club, and upscale wellness-focused amenities.
City officials say the additional height – while not yet approved – may be available for the site due to its location within a so-called Transit Oriented Development zone, which is designed to incentivize higher densities within areas near mass transit hubs.
Project developers would need to take additional steps to secure the additional three stories, but if approved, the project could qualify for a 50% increase in density based in part on its proximity to the Coconut Grove Metrorail Station on U.S. 1 and SW 27th Avenue. Under city rules projects this size would trigger a traffic impact study.
The Well Coconut Grove will include 194 housing units, 53,000 square feet of “wellness space” and 22,000 square feet of retail, city records show. Pricing will range from $1.5 million to $6.3 million.
According to a project spokesperson, construction is expected to begin in late 2025 with completion in early 2028. While demolition is underway at the site, building permits for new construction have not been issued, city officials confirmed.
Terra Group and its sales partners announced their development plans and launched marketing efforts in late December. Twenty percent of housing units sold within 48 hours of launch, a spokesperson said.
Terra Group has not responded to the Spotlight’s requests for comment.

Officials in the city’s Planning Department confirmed that project developers are seeking a height increase of three stories – and the full 50% density increase – because of the project’s proximity to Metrorail and through a “purchase” of unused density allowances of a historic property elsewhere in the city. Officials do not know the location.
The purchase, through a city provision known as Transfer of Development Density, or TDD, is one of several programs allowing properties within Transit Oriented Development zones to build higher.
The density transfer in this instance – made possible through a 2023 amendment to the city’s zoning code – will allow the project to build 65 additional housing units.
City officials say the density transfer provision is available to properties within three-quarters of a mile from a transit hub. How that distance is measured is unclear; zoning rules do not specify.
The question is an important one.
The address linked to the development site through city building department records – 2835 Tigertail Avenue – is exactly one mile by car and 0.8 miles by bicycle or walking to the Coconut Grove Metrorail Station. Both distances exceed the three-quarter-mile threshold for the density transfer program. As of press time, a city spokesperson has not explained the discrepancy.
The actual distance – as it is officially measured and recorded – could impact not only the project’s ability to transfer density but might also jeopardize other zoning benefits available to properties situated within a Transit Oriented Development zone.
By definition, a city spokesperson explained, the TOD designation depends in part on the style of roadway enhancements dedicated to bicycle traffic in the surrounding area.
When connecting to a transit hub through bike lanes and shared-use paths – the style found on SW 27th Avenue between the development site and the Metrorail Station – TOD benefits do not extend to properties beyond three-quarters of a mile.
While plans for The Well Coconut Grove are not yet approved or permitted, city officials say the developers could make use of a new procedure designed to streamline such projects – the Administrative Site Plan Review Process, or ASPR – that would greenlight the eight-story tower, as proposed.
Approval would be administrative, with no public input, and no review by the Miami City Commission or hearing boards.
Here’s hoping our city officials do not allow this developer to break our important zoning laws. If anyone thinks the people purchasing these units are going to take the Metro, we all know that is a technicality that the developer is trying to get away with. The rules are in place to keep our beautiful city intact. The height restrictions should be honored. Tigertail is already under so much traffic and density stress. We have to believe our city leadership cares more about our community than this developer.
If the city is looking to do something good, like incentivize use of mass transit with allowances for height and density, it should ensure that the projects meet the criteria and will result in increased use of mass transit. This project fails in terms of distance to mass transit (being 1 mile away vs 3/4 mile as per city provisions) and more importantly, that the residents of the development are highly unlikely to utilize it. The triggering of the traffic study would almost assuredly show that an additional 200 units on Tigertail would wreak havoc on the street. Even with all of that aside, the complex is out of place for its location, dwarfing the properties abutting it. I’m hoping the city stands firm on this one, as the developer has shown no regard for the city’s approval process by proceeding with the marketing of the property at above height and density.
My god this guy has balls!
He’s already marketing an 8-story monstrosity – with slick computer renderings – and he doesn’t even have the right to build at this density. He thinks Miami City officials are completely bought and paid for!
And he might be right: this developer just finished Mr. C which uses EVERY LAST SQUARE INCH of the lot it’s built on – no setbacks and not even enough parking for all the condos he’s built, just because condos are sellable revenue but parking? Not so much. Two people also died on the jobsite, one crushed to death and one who fell from a balcony.
And even in all that haste I heard from someone who bought there that they weren’t even able to close on time to let the buyers move in when they said they would. Enough of this! Coconut Grove deserves a master city plan with historic designation of our small, special community.