Despite a 1997 agreement that capped parking rates in perpetuity in exchange for extra building height and density in Center Grove, a McFarlane Road parking garage is facing renewed allegations of exorbitant prices and excessive fees.
Last November Miami resident John Fleeman experienced a form of sticker shock that is increasingly common for visitors to Coconut Grove: paying for parking.
“I was there for just shy of 90 minutes and they charged me $17.55. I thought, wow, that’s a pretty high rate for an hour-and-a-half,” said Fleeman of his brief encounter with Grove Garage on McFarlane Road, next to Hotel Ayra, which is operated by Southpark Management.
And yet his encounter with Southpark had not ended. A few days later Fleeman received a statement in the mail claiming he had failed to pay at all and would be subject to additional fees of up to $100. His efforts to resolve the dispute went nowhere.
While such complaints of excessive, even predatory practices within the Grove’s private parking industry are not uncommon, Fleeman’s case is particularly egregious given that Grove Garage is bound by a 27-year-old agreement with the City of Miami to offer parking at the same rate charged at city-owned lots and curbside metered spaces. At present that rate is, on average, $1.50 per hour. Late fees, if paid within 30 days, are capped at $36.
Records reviewed by the Spotlight show City of Miami officials reached a deal in 1997 with the developer behind the 16-story tower now operating as Hotel Arya that would allow additional building height and an extra 61,000 square feet of density in exchange for building a 180-lot parking garage next door.
And the caveat: parking rates must match “prevailing rates for public metered spaces in the vicinity.”
A spokesperson for Miami developer Ricardo Dunin, who inked the city deal and built the hotel and garage, tells the Spotlight that the city-rate parking fees still apply. “To [Dunin’s] knowledge, the city never changed the requirement, and subsequent owners are bound by it.”
After twice changing hands, Grove Garage is now owned by Coconut Grove real estate investor and developer Peter Gardner, who purchased it in 2014 for $2.5 million, records show.
Gardner, whose company, Silver Bluff Development, is behind a number of West Grove redevelopment projects, did not respond to a voicemail and text messages seeking comment.

Southpark Management owner Daniel Radrizzani, who operates the garage under an agreement with Gardner, told the Spotlight that he was unaware of the rate restrictions and declined to comment until he researched the issue.
This is not the first time Grove Garage operators have been questioned about abiding by the rate agreement. Shortly after the garage opened in 2002, Miami New Times reported that a Miami Beach-based company owned by parking mogul Hank Sopher – brought in by Dunin to operate the garage – was charging a $5 flat fee rather than the prevailing rate of $1.25 per hour.
Shortly thereafter Dunin sought city approval to modify his rate agreement but relented, according to former Grove resident and civic activist Glenn Terry, after Terry organized a group of residents to protest outside the hotel.
In 2006 Dunin sold the garage to a group led by Sopher for $1.4 million. A year later the owners again tried to obtain the city’s blessing to impose higher rates, recalls
Marc Sarnoff, a Coconut Grove resident, lawyer and lobbyist who served as Miami’s District 2 Commissioner from 2006 to 2015.
Sarnoff says he pushed back on the effort, explaining that Grove business owners and residents were adamantly opposed to raising the parking rates at the McFarlane Road garage.
“I understand why,” Sarnoff told the Spotlight “[The parking rate restriction] should be that way for infinity.”

According to Sarnoff, the city’s code enforcement office is responsible for enforcing the terms of the agreement, which came as part of a major special use permit, or MUSP, that authorized the hotel and adjacent development.
“If they are not currently charging the rate the city bargained for, then that is a violation,” Sarnoff said. “Code enforcement is supposed to investigate that.”
Asked what would trigger such an investigation, City of Miami spokesperson Kenia Fallat declined to answer, referring a reporter to the Miami Parking Authority (MPA), the semi-autonomous city agency in charge of public parking lots and garages.
But officials at MPA are throwing the ball back to the city.
“The MPA cannot enforce parking facilities located on private property,” said Angel Diaz, the agency’s operations director, in an emailed statement. “As a result, the MPA does not have jurisdiction over these areas and does not enforce the City of Miami’s code governing them.”
Meanwhile, Fleeman remains irked that Southpark is still trying to collect a fine, despite his efforts to resolve the dispute.
Looking back, he says his trouble may have begun when his phone struggled to connect to the mobile parking app (there was no attendant on site) – a common complaint registered with the Spotlight by motorists parking in Grove Garage – as he walked from his car across the street to St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church for a memorial service.
After receiving an invoice of $58 for nonpayment, he emailed a screenshot of his debit card transaction with the garage to Southpark’s collection agency. In response, Fleeman said he received two subsequent notices jacking up the fine to $90.
“At that point, I knew I was going to have a major hassle,” he said. “My position is that why is the burden on me to prove what I paid you for.”
Radrizzani, the Southpark Management owner, declined to comment on Freeman’s complaint.
this is the kind muckraking journalism I love. and who knows what other “agreements” developers have made with our city that have gone unfulfilled and un-reported. it will be interesting to see if the city can recoup the funds this garage has been overcharging for years.
I am so glad the Spotlight is covering this parking issue. The continuing loss of street parking, the increase in valet reserved spots, and the price gouging and deception by private lot owners will eventually kill off most of what makes our business district special and unique. This issue, as you point out with your reference to Kirk Nielsen’s article in Miami New Times, is why I featured it as one of my “30 Mostly True Stories of Coconut Grove” which Spotlight readers may enjoy, along with 29 other short vignettes of our beloved Grove where anything can and does happen, good and bad.