A developer is planning to build a second high-rise tower with an additional 402 apartments in the West Grove, in partnership with Miami-Dade County on public land at the intersection of Douglas Road and South Dixie Highway.
Related Urban Development Group wants to supersize a previously approved public-private housing project on Douglas Road in Coconut Grove by adding a second high-rise tower with 402 apartments to the development mix.
The new tower would rise 25 stories and border South Dixie Highway, joining a previously announced 22-story tower at Douglas Road and Day Avenue, directly across the street from the neighborhood’s Aldi grocery store.
The expanded development would have 818 living units, including an undisclosed number of subsidized apartments (workforce or affordable), 811 parking spaces including a five-story parking garage, and a new public library, according to project plans submitted to Miami-Dade County for review.
It’s unclear whether the revised plans will require a second approval by the Miami-Dade County Commission, or whether Related Urban plans to take advantage of the developer-friendly Live Local Act to build one or both towers.
The plans submitted to the county reference Florida’s controversial Live Local Act, which preempts local zoning, but don’t make the developer’s intentions clear. Miami-Dade County officials didn’t respond Monday to a request for clarification.
Last year, the County Commission approved a previous proposal from Related to replace three stories of senior housing on county-owned land with a 20-story apartment tower called Gallery in the Grove.
Read more: Highrise Housing Coming to the West Grove
That $148-million project – controversial in its own right – would have added 345 new apartments to the neighborhood, including 173 apartments priced below market for low- and moderate-income families and seniors.
Under the latest plans, that tower would rise 22 stories with 348 apartments, 374 parking spaces, and a 7,650-square-foot public library fronting on Douglas Road.
Those preliminary plans effectively double the size of the project by adding the second tower and a parking garage on South Dixie Highway, diagonally across the street from the Douglas Road Metrorail Station where a new apartment tower is under construction.
Altogether, the county is seeking to redevelop nine low-rise housing properties in the West Grove. To accomplish that, the county issued a request-for-proposal (RFP) in 2023 inviting developers to build mixed-income housing on county-owned land.
The process culminated last year with the approval of two projects – the Gallery in the Grove project proposed by Related Urban, and a second project – Eviva by Integral Florida – with 450 apartments on Douglas Road between Oak and Day Avenues.
Read more: Second Highrise Tower Approved for West Grove
The two projects are part of an ambitious effort by the county to encourage more high-rise development on public land near Metrorail stations, in part by relaxing zoning restrictions.
Both projects were approved with the county’s new RTZ zoning that allows developers to pack more housing into taller buildings in rapid transit zones.
