Spotlight 80-250225

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

What’s Ahead for Fuller Street
Housing within Reach for Residents
Happy Hour with the Spotlight Crew

Fuller Street Makeover Gets Green Light

Plans are moving forward to develop Fuller Street into a permanent, pedestrian-only promenade. But the Grove’s upscale march raises questions about whose needs it should serve.

By Maria O’Brien

A long-awaited plan to revitalize Fuller Street in downtown Coconut Grove as a pedestrian promenade and public meeting space took a big step forward last month when Miami-Dade County officials approved its permanent closure to vehicle traffic.

The move followed a December vote by the Coconut Grove Business Improvement District (BID) Board of Directors to support – and partially fund – the initiative.

But exactly what a reimagined Fuller Street would look like is not entirely clear.

Concept drawings for the makeover prepared by the developer behind a massive mixed-use project planned for Grand Avenue, at the northern terminus of Fuller Street, will be presented at a community meeting sometime in March, BID Director Mark Burns tells the Spotlight. Public input will be invited.

Housing Within Reach for West Grove Residents

A nonprofit organization is seeking City of Miami support for a proposed mixed-use project that backers say would help to stabilize a neighborhood threatened by rising real estate prices and the loss of cultural identity.

By Don Finefrock

A nonprofit organization active in the West Grove is seeking to partner with the City of Miami to build affordable housing for neighborhood residents on a cluster of seven vacant lots just south of Grand Avenue on Douglas Road.

If the project gets off the ground, backers say the mixed-use development could help to stabilize the neighborhood – and serve as a model for future projects – by prioritizing local residents and preserving the neighborhood’s history, culture and social fabric.

The Collaborative Development Corporation (CDC) and its partners are asking the City Commission this week to commit $7.2 million for the acquisition of the seven properties, the largest of which sits on the southwest corner of Douglas and Grand.

To advance the project, CDC needs a four-fifths affirmative vote of the commission on Thursday. Miami District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo is backing the request. The money, in the form of a forgivable loan, would come from District 2’s share of funding from the city’s Miami for Everyone program.

One major selling point: The partners have pledged to work with community groups in the West Grove to market the project’s 54 apartments to qualified buyers and tenants who have a “deep connection” to the community.

Happy Hour with the Spotlight

Curious to know who’s behind the Coconut Grove Spotlight and the brilliant editorial content we post twice a week on our website? Join us on Tuesday March 4 at Berries in the Grove (2884 SW 27^th Avenue) for an informal conversation with our crack editorial crew. Have a question, comment or suggestion about our coverage, or maybe a news tip? Fire away from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at this free forum. RSVP here to let us you’re coming.