Spotlight 60-241217 HUD

In the Spotlight:

  • Mutiny hotel and condo pursued by private equity.
  • Federal investigation looks into City’s actions in West Grove.
  • A civil rights stalwart and history advocate passes.

Mayor Suarez’ firm chases a high profile property while the US Department of Housing and Urban Development investigates the City of Miami’s actions in the West Grove. Your observations are can be shared through the comments section found beneath each story and in the Letters to the Editor section.


Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is a senior partner at the real estate investment firm that is seeking to purchase 100% of the condo units at Mutiny on the Bay.

By Izzy Kapnick

The Mutiny Hotel on South Bayshore Drive. (David Villano for the Spotlight).

A real estate investment firm led in part by Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is eyeing a buyout at Mutiny on the Bay, a Grove landmark with a storied past as a party palace for celebrities and cocaine kingpins in the 1970s and 1980s. 

Mutiny residents received notice from their condominium board on December 10 that DaGrosa Capital, where Suarez serves as senior partner, would be extending buyout offers for their individual units in the coming days.

The news has left owners in the 12-story building buzzing as they await bids from the Coral Gables-based firm.

Mutiny resident Sabrina Wilkinson, a real estate agent, said word of a potential buyout triggered a “bit of an uproar” among unit owners.


West Grove community groups say the City of Miami’s planning and zoning policies unfairly discriminated against Black residents, in violation of federal law.

By Don Finefrock

The vacant apartment building at 3395 Grand Avenue is one of 18 properties cited in an unfair housing complaint that three West Grove community groups have filed against the City of Miami. (Don Finefrock for the Spotlight)

Federal officials are actively investigating an unfair housing complaint that accuses the City of Miami of enacting discriminatory planning and zoning policies that led to the mass eviction and displacement of hundreds of Black residents in the West Grove.

An attorney involved in the case told community members this month that investigators from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) had requested additional documents, interviewed a former resident who was evicted, and reviewed proposed remedies suggested by three organizations that brought the complaint.

“They are waiting for us to come back with a list of priorities,” Berbeth Foster, a senior attorney with the Community Justice Project in Miami, told a meeting of the Coconut Grove Ministerial Alliance on Saturday December 7.


A lifelong resident of Coconut Grove who worked to preserve the history of the Little Bahamas neighborhood, Cooper Baker was 87 years old.

By Hank Sanchez-Resnik

Leona Cooper Baker (Photo courtesy of HistoryMiami)

Leona Louise Cooper Baker, a lifelong resident of Coconut Grove who helped to preserve important elements of the Grove’s Black history, died peacefully on December 14. Born on December 26, 1936, she was less than two weeks from her 88th birthday.

A viewing will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. on Sunday December 22, followed by a Litany service at 7 p.m. at Christ Episcopal Church, 3481 Hibiscus Street. A funeral service will be held Monday December 23 at 10 a.m. at the church.

One of nine children and a descendant of Coconut Grove’s original Bahamian settlers, Cooper Baker is survived by numerous cousins, nieces, and nephews, including her niece Clarice Cooper, also a lifelong resident of Coconut Grove and president of the Coconut Grove Village West Homeowners and Tenants Association (HOATA).


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