Spotlight 197-260407

Good morning. What we’re covering in today’s Spotlight:

The Puzzling Death of a Greek Architect
Kennedy Park’s New Trees
A Pending Vote on Density Transfers
The Cost of Miami’s Election Misfire

The Architect, the Assassin, and an Unsolved Grove Murder

Four decades after Yiannis Antoniadis was shot dead in his Coconut Grove penthouse, the clues remain — but the killer has never been found.

By Mike Clary

Prominent architect Yiannis Antoniadis was sitting on the floor of his penthouse Mary Street apartment in Coconut Grove that Monday evening in 1986, his back against the couch, enjoying a glass of white wine that was propped between his feet.    

He was dressed in jeans, a casual shirt and barefoot, and, at the age of 49, with his practice thriving and his acclaim on the rise, may well have been gazing out his living room windows on a world that seemed his for the taking. 

And that’s when the killer struck, pumping three bullets from a Colt .357 into a man who apparently never saw it coming. The assassin fled, and the wine did not spill. 

Kennedy Park’s New Trees

Local arborist Ian Wogan relocated 17 trees last month from a construction site on Tigertail Avenue where The WELL Coconut Grove is slated to rise; eight of those trees found their way to Kennedy Park.

By Don Finefrock

The Spotlight caught up with local arborist Ian Wogan to ask him about the new trees that appeared last month in Kennedy Park on South Bayshore Drive. Wogan and his company Treesources coordinated the relocation of eight mature trees from The WELL construction site on Tigertail Avenue to Kennedy Park.

Spotlight: How many trees were removed from The WELL construction site and replanted in Kennedy Park and elsewhere? What types of trees were moved, how large were they, and how old (if you can estimate)?

Wogan: A total of 17 trees were preserved through relocation offsite from The WELL. Eight of these trees, of specimen size, were relocated to Kennedy Park – five black olive, and three mahogany. The remaining trees were smaller pink tabebuia, silver buttonwood and a gumbo limbo.

Spotlight: What’s the success rate for transfers like this; what factors determine whether a tree survives and thrives in a new location; and how long before you can say definitively that the move was successful?

No Quorum, No Changes: Density Transfer Moves to Vote

With a key hearing on a possible Grove carveout last week canceled, Miami’s density transfer proposal is back on track in its original form — renewing concerns that units tied to affordable housing could fuel luxury developments in Coconut Grove.

By David Villano

A controversial proposal to expand a program that allows developers in Miami to transfer unused affordable housing density to market-rate and luxury projects elsewhere in the city is moving forward without revisions that would have excluded Coconut Grove from some of its provisions.

A scheduled April 1 hearing before the city’s Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board (PZAB) — where an amended version of the proposal, backed by District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo, was expected to be considered — was canceled for lack of a quorum, leaving roughly 75 residents and stakeholders unable to speak on the measure.

Cost of Miami’s Election Fiasco Could Double

The cost of last year’s election fiasco for Miami taxpayers may double this week, if the Miami City Commission agrees to pay $150,000 in legal fees incurred by former mayoral candidate Emilio Gonzalez. Gonzalez went to court last year to prevent the city from moving the 2025 general election to 2026. Gonzalez won three times in court – once at the circuit court level and twice on appeal – but ultimately lost the election to Miami’s current mayor, Eileen Higgins. On Thursday, the Miami City Commission is scheduled to vote on a proposed settlement agreement, authorizing City Manager James Reyes to write a check for $150,000 to the law firm that represented Gonzalez on appeal. If approved, the payment would double the cost to taxpayers. The city itself incurred at least $150,000 in outside legal fees to defend its decision to move the election without voter approval. The judges who decided the case said that was unconstitutional. The mayor and the City Commission are now exploring ways to move the city’s election calendar from odd to even years through a public referendum, perhaps as soon as August.

Letters to the Editor

Readers React: Miami should save the Pan Am Terminal at Dinner Key, and move City Hall downtown, where it belongs, a Spotlight reader says…

Continue Reading…