Center Grove Tower’s Bonus Height Claim Under Scrutiny

The Lincoln, a proposed luxury development on SW 27th Avenue, is claiming three extra floors under a repealed zoning loophole — even after Miami zoning officials admitted the project doesn’t qualify.

A proposed upscale residential tower in Center Grove will rise to eight stories – claiming three stories of “bonus height” under a recently repealed zoning provision – despite a ruling in June by a key zoning official that the property did not qualify for the extra stories.

The Lincoln, at 3152 SW 27th Ave., is one of at least three Center Grove projects seeking to exploit a 2023 zoning loophole – an 11^th-hour legislative amendment with no public notice – that raised height limits from five to eight stories for properties near Metrorail and other transit hubs. 

The City Commission closed the loophole in June but projects already in the development pipeline are allowed to apply for the bonus height. City officials previously confirmed that two such projects are “vested” under the older, more permissive code: The WELL Coconut Grove on Tigertail Avenue, and, barely two blocks away, The Lincoln. 

But in early June, in response to a detailed analysis of The Lincoln’s development plans by a nearby resident, Chris Lunding, City of Miami Assistant Zoning Director Paul Brown acknowledged the city’s error, concurring in an email to senior zoning officials and to Miami District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo that the property did not qualify for the bonus height because it violated a key condition: it abuts a single-family neighborhood. 

“[The Lincoln’s] proposed height of eight (8) stories is not consistent with the following code provision of Miami 21,” Brown wrote in the email, before detailing restrictions for properties that abut the single-family districts. “The project’s assigned zoning reviewer… is aware that the maximum allowable height is five (5) stories and will apprise the applicant of the findings.”

But despite the city’s about-face, The Lincoln’s development team is pushing ahead with its original plans. A website for the project depicts an eight-story luxury tower topped by a partially-covered, ninth-floor roof deck. City records show the project – now in permitting – as an eight-story, 182,000-square-foot building topping out at 118 feet.  

Lunding and other residents say Pardo’s staff aides, in recent weeks, have repeatedly confirmed The Lincoln’s vested status to build eight stories, sharing construction plans and citing a November waiver notice referencing the bonus height entitlement. Pardo declined to answer questions about the project.

Despite repeated requests, a city spokesperson has not clarified the zoning status of the Lincoln and has not provided a list of other Grove properties seeking bonus height under the old zoning code. Brown has not responded to multiple requests from the Spotlight for comment. 

The Lincoln is a joint venture between Miami’s Element Development and Brickell-based Lore Development Group. 

The development team has also assembled a four-lot parcel directly across the street from the Lincoln’s proposed site, at the corner of SW 27th Avenue and Day Avenue. 

A recent waiver notification letter sent to nearby property owners and local civic groups announced plans on that site for an as-yet-unnamed 145,000-square-foot multifamily building. Total height: eight stories. 

Element president Javier Lluch, a codeveloper of the five-year-old Glasshaus residential tower directly across from The Lincoln site, did not respond to phone and email messages seeking comment.

Since his June email exchange with Brown, the zoning administrator, Lunding says he’s heard nothing but radio silence. An email early this week to Brown, other zoning officials, and to Pardo has gone unanswered, he says. 

But the law is crystal clear, insists Lunding, a trial lawyer by trade, arguing that the city has zero legal basis for granting the bonus height to the Lincoln. “From what I can see this is a pretty simple lawsuit, should it come to that.”