A city of Miami board voted to approve a rezoning of a portion of the Jungle Island property, which Terra and ESJ Capital Partners’ Ecoresiliency Miami plan to redevelop.
Miami’s Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board voted to amend the existing Jungle Island special area plan and rezone about 5.4 acres of the nearly 19-acre site to T6-36 from T6-12. The rezoning still requires first and second reading approvals from the city commission at later, unspecified dates.
Despite unanimous approval, board members raised concerns about parking, traffic and green space. The approval includes a condition that a parking study be completed.
Last November, 62 percent of voters approved a charter amendment to redevelop Jungle Island. The joint venture between David Martin’s Terra and ESJ will acquire the 5.4 acres that are currently part of the 13.3-acre Jungle Island property at 1111 Parrot Jungle Trail in Miami. The developers plan to build two up to 48-story luxury condo towers on the land they’re buying from the city. Much of the existing waterfront Jungle Island theme park will become the $37 million public park paid for by the developers.
The assessed purchase price for the land that the developers are purchasing is $160 million, but the developers will provide much of that via public benefits. At closing, Terra and ESJ will pay $10 million. They will also make annual payments to the city for 99 years, provide $20 million in public benefits, and $22 million to pay off a HUD loan to the Jungle Island property, according to a previous city meeting.
At Wednesday’s meeting, board member Arthur Porosoff, a broker and developer, called the proposed 50 parking spaces “frustrating,” and the larger discussion around parking a waste of time. He also said the planned public park was really a park for the 800 residents of the planned condominium component. He said the developers are “taking advantage of the people.”
“Let’s be real,” Porosoff said. “The reality is that it’s a joke….This is an amenity for the building. I understand everybody gets paid a lot of dollars. I get paid big dollars. I’m a developer. I like the story. I would hire you to tell the story, and I would hire you to convince them to agree with the story, but the fact of the matter is that this is not for the public. Am I going to vote for it? Yeah, I’m a real estate guy. But the fact of the matter here is that this is a joke, and everybody knows it.”
Porosoff sought to extract more parking from the developer, but realized that the city no longer had leverage to do so.
“Now that I think about it, that’s a moot point. You can’t,” he said. “The deal was already struck, and it’s a bad deal that we did, in my mind.”
The developers’ attorney, Iris Escarra, said the city’s parks department will dictate the design used to build the park, as well as how much parking to include. But the parking will cut into the 13-plus acres of park space.
Board member Joseph Corral also pressed the developers’ team on parking, as well as how people will access the park.
“It’s hard not to be skeptical,” Corral said. “It’s very hard, because if you would have told the people they were voting for a referendum to build [up to 48]-story towers, it would have never passed. But the park is really all we saw. We all saw the beautiful renderings.”
The park’s designer, Daniel Vasini of West Eight, called the park a “game-changer.”
“There is a great bicycle lane so you can come here by bike,” Vasini said.
Corral interrupted him: “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I’m sorry. I’m being very serious,” Vasini replied.
“Have you been on the MacArthur Causeway?” Corral asked.
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