Developer to pay $8 million for Grove playhouse

Real Estate
Developer to pay $8 million for Grove playhouse

May 10, 2005  

By Paola Iuspa-Abbott

Less than a year after the nonprofit group that runs the Coconut Grove Playhouse took control of the theater from the state, it has agreed to sell the 2.3-acre site for $8 million to developer Henry Pino.
He plans to build a new theater, residential condominiums and a parking garage at the site.
Late last Friday, the Playhouse announced that it was selling the land to Pino’s Strategic Properties Group of Miami. The deal would close in about a year, after the developer gets zoning approval and if the state agrees to allow construction of condos and retail on the property. When the state transferred ownership of the property to the playhouse board of directors, it included a deed restriction that says only a theater could be built on the property.

The playhouse plans to use the money from the property sale to create an endowment to operate the theater, said Holland & Knight partner William Bloom, a member of the board. Bloom represented the board in the deal.

There have been attempts to redevelop the property before, but they never materialized. Coconut Grove residents have long opposed efforts to redevelop the theater property on Main Highway.

When under state control, politics got in the way of plans to redevelop it. Almost as soon as the nonprofit that controls the theater took over, it began considering options for the property. Since last summer, board members have been interviewing possible developers and architects to be involved in the project.

Under the agreement with Pino, he would build a 650-seat theater and a 250-seat black box theater and transfer ownership of the building back to the board.

He would also build 100 residential condos atop the venue, some retail space and an adjacent 250-space garage to serve the theater and area businesses.

“The theater will be revamped and turned into a state-of-the-art facility,” said Jose Gelabert-Navia, the managing director of the Miami office of the Perkins+Will architecture firm.

The board selected Gelabert-Navia, a former dean of the University of Miami’s School of Architecture, to design the new theater building and try to preserve some of the existing structure, such as the building’s facade.

Plans to demolish the playhouse and build condos and retail on the site could face opposition from area residents. Coconut Grove residents are known for fighting development they feel threatens the character of the neighborhood. They are in the midst of a bitter struggle to prevent construction of a Home Depot store at U.S. 1 and 32nd Avenue.

The playhouse building has a historic value to some patrons and area residents, but it has never been designated a historic landmark. Most of the interior was renovated in the 1970s. The existing facade is not the original from when it was built in the mid-1920s.

The playhouse board contends the redevelopment is vital to securing the future of the theater.

The residential component would help create a vital community around the theater, said Gelabert-Navia, a past member of the Historic Preservation Board of Miami and Miami Beach.

Some area business owners and community activists welcome the proposal, hoping that a better working theater will attract popular plays and larger audiences, who would also have dinner and shop in Coconut Grove.

The current main theater’s 1,700 seats are hard to fill and its backstage area is limited, sources said. The Playhouse’s current 100-seat black box theater used to be a bar and columns block some views to the stage.

“Building mixed-use developments is the way of the future,” said resident Robert Krulik, chairman of the Cocoanut Grove Village Council, which represents area residents before the city of Miami. “Something needs to be done with the existing dilapidated parking lot. I would welcome a garage. Parking in Coconut Grove is awful tight.”

Krulik said the old building should be preserved and vowed to keep an eye on the magnitude of any proposed development for the property.

“We are excited about this new project,” said Sylvano Bignon, owner of Greenstreet Cafe near the theater. He hopes the new venue would be prepared to stage concerts and show movies during the theater’s off-season and help draw patrons to the Grove year-round.

Paola Iuspa-Abbott can be reached at piuspa@floridabiz.com or at (305) 347-6657. 

Copyright © 2005, ALM Properties, Inc.

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