Miami Green Spaces
June 22, 2008 by Lucas Lechuga
- Margaret Pace Park - Of the public green spaces mentioned in this post, Margaret Pace is my favorite. It is located in the Edgewater Miami within walking distance to Quantum on the Bay, 1800 Club, Cite on the Bay and the future Paramount Bay. Margaret Pace Park offers a number of activities such as tennis, volleyball, basketball and soccer. It's typical to see volleyball and basketball games continue well until the sun goes down. You'll also see runners dashing around the parameter of the park and dog owners playing with their pets and mingling with other dog owners. Those with small children will also appreciate the children's park at Margaret Pace park.
- Museum Park (formerly Bicentennial Park) - This public green space was recently renamed Museum Park. It will be a collaborative effort by the Miami Museum of Science and the Miami Art Museum. Museum Park is located just south of the I-395 expressway and just north of the American Airlines Arena. It is walking distance to Ten Museum Park, 900 Biscayne Bay, Marina Blue and the future Marquis in the Downtown Miami neighborhood of Park West. Currently, this is probably the most underutilized public green space by locals throughout Miami. You'll occasionally see soccer games taking place, as you do in the picture above, but that's about it. Museum Park is home to a variety of music events, with the largest being Ultra Music Festival held in March. It'll be nice to see the transformation of Museum Park within the next 1-2 years.
- Bayfront Park - This public green space has a children's park, an amphitheater (not seen in the picture above) and a helium balloon ride, called Miami SkyLift, that unfortunately hasn't taken off in quite a while. Bayfront Park is also home to the Flying Trapeze School and offers yoga classes three times per week. Bayfront Park is located in Downtown Miami just south of Bayfront Marketplace and just north of the Intercontinental Hotel. It is walking distance to condominium buildings such as 50 Biscayne, the Loft Downtown, Loft 2, One Miami, Met 1 and the future Everglades on the Bay (now known as Vizcayne).
There are a variety of other public green spaces throughout Miami not mentioned in this post. However, these are the ones located near many of the new condo buildings in Miami. Unfortunately, there currently aren't any public green spaces in Brickell.
I am told by my concierge and building sales staff that the space in between The Midtown Shops and Midtown 2 and 4 will be turned into a park. There were construction trucks hauling dirt/sand into that space all of last week.
I live in Midtown and I sincerely hope this is true. It would be a great addition to Midtown and Miami.
There are parks in Brickell, they’re just small. For example, Simpson Park, Brickell Park, Mary Brickell Park, etc. They’re either really small or nature preserves.
Storm,
I’ve heard the same from someone who works for the developer. He told me that the space will be turned into a park for the next 2-3 years. After that, a movie theater is supposed to move into one of the pieces of land.
I’m sure I’m going to get ripped to shreds showing this- the negative people will say what a pipedream it is, but I love Dover Kohl’s plan for Museum Park, it is modelled off the Museum Campus in Chicago on Lake Shore Drive with the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, Adler’s Planetarium, etc…those of you from Chicago will know what I’m talking about…
You have to scroll down to see the plan for the park, there’s a gorgeous aerial perspective on the page 6.
http://www.doverkohl.com/files/pdf/Miami%20CRA.pdf
Unfortunately, Cooper, Robertson revised it and the new version is not nearly as strong, it’s ok, not great.
La la, if those plans pan out it will be great addition to our downtown. I fear, however, that someone in the Miami city government will find someway to put their cousin in charge and f@#% the whole thing up.
Yes, and it will be great for Midtown too. Midtown rocks- I went to Linen n Things this morning, used the teaser parking and parked literally right in front of the entrance. The whole experience was so pleasant and convenient, I couldn’t believe I was in Miami going to a big box store in what used to be the slums.
thanks for the green space update. too bad MIA doesnt have a large central park the way NYC does-that would be great. these are great green spaces but do not appear very large. but they are nice bayside properties. i am a fan of bayfront park as a up a coming place with all of the new buildings going up in the area-one miami, epic, met, etc. seems like this could become a great little neighborhood soon.
Lucas, thanks for expanding the areas where you have condo search available. any chance you could include coral gables? interesting developments have come on line and will continue over the next year-would love to see additional info on the area.
Love that pic of Margaret Pace Park. There are quite a few improvements since that pic has been taken. In reality it looks even nicer and feels much much larger. Is it taken from the Grand Double Tree?
La La,
Thanks for posting that link. It is amazing and I can’t wait to see all that happen. Everything in that plan will be walking distance from where I live. Surely some exciting times for Miami are ahead. In these troubled economic times, such major public projects are what we need to stir up the economy a bit.
there used to be a public park on brickell right on the bay where jade sits and also the future site of villa magna if it ever gets built. Our corrupt government sold it to developers about 15 years ago. Its really important that we, the citizenry, protect public areas and make sure that we hold our government accountable for any dubious sales of public land to private developers. It is a shame that brickell lost this bayfront park.
DLJ,
That is scandalous. And these so called elite and enlightened Brickell denizens did nothing to prevent it!
Well Margaret Pace Park is a private trust land, leased to the city for 99 years. Even after that it will remain so.
Storm, Lucas,
I hope you are right about the park at Midtown. My unit overlooks that area and right now, with all of the sand, it looks like a beach without water.
There are so many dog owners in the building and this would be a great opportunity for them to have some play space in walking distance. As for me, I just want to be able to sit on my balcony and look at something besides Target 🙂
La La – not to rain on your parade but Linens N Things filed for bankruptcy, so get whatever you need there while you still can!
Linen n Things was not the point of my comment, shopping in a rewarding urban and pedestrian environment with a feeling of safety and convenience was what I was raving about. I’ll take it over Dadeland Station anyday.
A couple other parks to mention…
Sewell Park….on the Miami River borders a few condominium projects set to open soon, River Oaks and Terrazas River Park Village. Close proximity to Jackson/Civic Center area. Its on the Miami River and with tall royal palms… this park is a beauty.
South Point Park….undergoing multimilliondollar renovation, its got a great setting right where the ocean borders Government Cut..
All these parks will be full of dog shit from owners not picking up. They cannot handle the hundreds of dogs that these condos now have. Midtowns park will become a movie theater one day. Magic Johnson’s company will be part owners. It will be modeled after the one in Harlem.
Great post Lucas. Only recently, while waiting for a customer who was staying at the Intercontinental downtown, did I actually take a walk through Bayfront Park. They even have tropical colored Adirondack chairs set up in some sand along the water. It was about 8:30am on a Sunday and the people in the chairs actually looked like tourists, not homeless. Miami has a lot to offer if one is willing to look. Looking forward to finding out about more in future posts. Thanks.
AZ 88,
All the parks you mentioned except the South Point park are land locked. It makes it that much more valuable, all these other waterfront parks, which are otherwise non existent in Miami.
Wild Bill,
For once I have to agree with you. I just can’t understand these “educated” retards leaving dog shit unpicked. In the Pace park 90% comply but 10% not picking after their dogs is still too many (or too much lump of dump). I always point out and admonish those who do not pick up after. I hate doing it but I refuse to be a silent spectator.
Tom,
I too love walking on the Bayfront Park and Marina. I actually enjoy it more than walking on the Ocean Drive. The restaurants are very reasonably priced too. 50 Biscayne and One Miami would be my second choice if I did not live in either the Q or 18.
I hope no one here is holding their breath for any parks….this city is run by corrupt, incompetent morons. they will get some funding for it and somehow jack all the money and plant a few trees somewhere, welcome to Miami.
gables,
I added Coral Gables. Take a look at the list and let me know what I’m missing. I’m sure that I’m missing a lot. I only want to include either the well known or brand new buildings that will have interest in them from buyers.
How Come “Asia” is missing from your Brickell Key Listings?
Lucas, thanks for the update on Coral Gables. There are a couple of condos which you may want to add. 55 Merrick is becoming occupied i believe. 1600 ponce is another system to come on line soon i think. there are a series of new buildings near Village of Merrick Park mall, but i do not know the names. Your list is a pretty good run at the newer, nicer buildings.
Thanks for the great blog.
The area south of Jade is not a park but pretty walkway—sad thing now is that parking is only for residents 24/7 so you can’t park and enjoy the water view any more.
Not to break the chain but really wanted to drop this in.. “Federal officials blasted the real estate industry on Thursday for not doing enough to prevent rampant fraud within its own ranks”
SO TRUE… Over the last couple years there has been an underlying buzz about this dirty agent and that dirty agent. I personally time and time again reported my suspicions to The Realtor Association only to be told that I must obtain a report then file a complaint then wait. These were not just complaints, they were a shout out to the Realtor Association to get off their freaken asses to protect the industry. I think the Realtor Association would care more if they were told their specialty coffees were not being delivered for the week.
Realtors need to demand accountability from the top down.
It’ll never happen but I’d love to see a bayfront Little League Baseball stadium at one of these parks.
Speaking of things that would be nice but will never happen, how about the City purchasing the old Brickel CitiCentre land (the giant green space on both sides of S Miami Ave and SW 8th ST) and turning it into a “central park” for Brickell? Its a giant green field already.
Dave, I keep asking myself my the City doesn’t do that — there’s also a space next to Axis on S. Miami that’s perfect for a little park.
Then I remember: oh yeah, Miami municipal gov’t sucks. They’re incompetent. And I have my answer.
Looks like bad news for anyone fighting to get their deposit back on a condo:
Excerpts:
“On July 11, the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled that a buyer cannot easily get out of a pre-construction contract on a Riviera Beach condo unit.”
“With the 4th DCA ruling, “we’re closing, one by one, the doors on all those flippers trying to speculate in the real estate market,” said John H. Pelzer, a Fort Lauderdale attorney who represented the condo developer in this case.”
“Pelzer said condo developers throughout the state will be using this case to hold buyers accountable to the pre-construction contracts they signed. “This decision is binding on all the trial courts in the state of Florida,” Pelzer said.”
“To recap: In a unanimous decision, the 4th DCA found that a pre-construction buyer of Riviera Beach’s Marina Grande condo could not cancel a purchase contract simply because the developer was hiking maintenance fees. The increases were mostly for insurance and utilities, but also for the upgrade of the condo’s multimedia system.”
only problem with a park at SW 8th and S Miami Ave is that it’d be filled with vagrants and dog poo and would be unusable in short order.
a park would have to be fenced off and locked each night, similar to Jose Marti park near NeoLofts.
BFG
the order only deals with one segment of the lawsuits being filed (i.e., you screwed me with the condo budget). there are still other (bs) arguments being floated.
The “you screwed me with the condo budget” is a “minor” issue.
http://beckandlee.wordpress.com/2008/06/24/will-condo-deposit-lawsuits-slow-down-in-the-wake-of-the-marina-grande-decision-the-answer-is-no/
Will Condo Deposit Lawsuits Slow Down In The Wake Of The Marina Grande Decision? The Answer Is No
June 24, 2008
“There is no doubt that the recent Marina Grande opinion from the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Florida is a key decision and, as I’ve written about here, it is an important object of analysis on the issue of what constitutes a “material and adverse” change sufficient to enable a condo buyer to recover his or her preconstruction deposits. What surprises me, however, is that newspapers reporting on the decision have suggested that it foreshadows an imminent slow-down in lawsuits brought by real estate purchasers. For examples of this story line, see the June 13th South Florida Business Journal (”Buyer suits show signs of slowing”) and yesterday’s Palm Beach Post (”Is this the death knell for people trying to undo their purchase deals and avoid the closing table?”).
In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. The number of calls to my office in recent weeks and months from people all over the world who bought Florida real estate and who are now seeking legal advice on what to do about their purchase contracts can fairly be described as a flood, and there is no sign of the floodwaters abating any time soon. We are only now beginning to realize how overheated the market in Florida real estate (along with the broader U.S. housing market) was in recent years, and that cold realization is carrying with it the discovery of some of the more intricate schemes and scams that were perpetrated during the days when everyone believed that investing in real estate was a golden ticket. Just by way of example gleaned from news reports in the past several days, consider the recent wave of criminal mortgage fraud indictments in South Florida, along with this report from yesterday’s Naples Daily News concerning an elaborate “lease-to-own” scheme allegedly perpetrated by a developer on Florida’s west coast.
Based on my experience and legal practice, the core and narrow issues in the Marina Grande case — that is, whether rising assessments due to increased insurance premiums and electricity costs were sufficiently material and adverse to enable a buyer to cancel its purchase contract — represent just a tiny sliver of the universe of grounds for buyers’ claims in the ongoing litigation war between buyers and developers. As I have written on this blog, those grounds include the federal Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (ILSA), securities law, as well as the multiplicity of state statutory and common law claims. And as the situation for real estate purchasers continues to worsen in the midst of the ongoing subprime crisis and resultant credit crunch, we can expect to see ever more lawsuits filed by buyers on the basis of new and novel legal theories.”
The reasons will vary as to why someone wants out of a condo purchase contract. However, the important thing to take away from that story is that it seems the courts are seeing through the BS reasons that people are using to get out of their contracts. They realize that almost all of these lawsuits are simply being brought up because of the bad real estate market.
Unless you’ve got a SOLID reason for wanting to cancel a contract, you’re most likely out of luck. The courts seem to be seeing these BS reasons for what they really are: flippers upset that they are going to lose money because of a gamble gone wrong.
I don’t expect the number of lawsuits to slow down, either. People will try anything when they are desperate. However, I don’t think that many of these lawsuits will succeed.
unrelated
i’m not surprised that the IVY educated lawyers of beck and lee (i love their shameless self promotion about their educational background) would take that position. frankly, it’s not entirely intellectually dishonest. that said, every one of these suits seeking full return of deposits is. if the contract states you can get back 5% if you cancel, sure, then you should get it back. but all the other bs that is being thrown against the wall, i.e., the jacuzzi is too small or the brochure promised me i would have four light bulbs instead of three, has no merit (okay, i may be exaggerating a tad but you get the point).
cooper’s latest suit against the trump projects is possibly the most far fetched yet.
jcrimes,
You are 100% correct when you say: “if the contract states you can get back 5% if you cancel, sure, then you should get it back”.
Tell that to Gourge Perez! They won’t pay and they won’t put you in default, to “start the clock”, even though the contracts clearly state you are entitled to the 5% (25% of deposit) if you don’t close.
That is why I urge everyone in that position to contact Chicago Title and put a “hold” on your escrow. That way Gourge gets his half when you get yours!
Speaking about green spaces, the state of Florida is buying 187,000 acres from the sugar companies and returning them back to the everglades… awesome.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/us/24cnd-sugar.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
AJ,
Asia should be added by the end of the week. My developer is working on something for me so that I can manually add buildings and neighborhoods as I see fit. I’m going to definitely be adding 900 Biscayne, Met 1, Asia, Wind and Midtown 4.
I also have some great changes that should be implemented within the next 3 weeks. One of those changes is the “Condo Deals” page. I’ve been very bad about updating that page. The new page will require about 90% less time for me to keep updated but won’t skimp on information. I think you’ll all like it.
There’s another change that I’ve very excited about but I won’t discuss until it is ready. I’m looking forward to it.
Lucas,
Your blog is really getting better every day. Congratulations. Looking forward to seeing the upcoming changes. BTW, your last 5 days property search is not working either…it comes blank.
Lucas,
Dont forget to add Everglades on the Bay condo. I think its better than all those Loft buildings and I slightly like it better than 50 Biscayne!
ILSA is the 800 lb. gorilla in these condo suits. It’s a federal law that many condo developers paid scant attention to. Court’s can’t simply overlooks violations of statutory law.
They should make the Brickell CitiCentre a park. It already basically is a park. It’s got big trees, grass and all they’ve have to do is buy the land and build a few sidewalks through the land so people can walk around. It’d be a great investment for the city of Miami.
Who can we contact to get this?
Also, just a suggestion for Lucas. Under the “Condo Listings” tabs on the right hand side, you should change the tab that says “Miami” to “Downtown/Midtown”.
I think it’s a bit confusing for those from outside of Miami to understand what the “Miami” tab is for as technically all the tags refer to Miami. It’d be cleaner, easier, and more specific.
Un-Related,
Other thugs such as Marina Blue will not return your 5% as stated in their contract either
CA,
Call your escrow company and find out who the underwriter on the account is. Then fax and send by courier / certified mail a letter stating: “I am in a dispute with “_______” (the developer and want a hold put on these funds until you are informed in writing that the dispute has been resolved.”
Provided the escrowed funds (10% + interest) has not already been released to the developer, the escrow company is OBLIGATED to “freeze” the account.
Even if you have to sue, the developer will have to wait for “his half” until the lawsuit, which you will win, is adjudicated.
ANYBODY in ANY PROJECT with the “return of the 5% if you don’t close” in the contract should be dialing up their respective escrow companies!
Developer won’t honor contract? Make them wait for “their half”!
Lucas,
That would be great. Couldn’t wait to see all the changes. Could you ask your site developer to add a local (Site only) search option box? For Example, if I type “jcrimes” in the search field, it should be able to pull out all his (or her?) postings, both previous and current. That would be cool and also a valuable tool for referencing and quoting.
I am back in the greatest city on Earth. I miss Miami but I still love New York in the Summer and Autumn and in December. No matter how many years pass, I still get awestruck when I am driving through the canyons of Manhattan in my Open top and always wonder there is no such place on Earth.
It also helps for the fact that I can only make some decent money in New York to pay those pesky taxes and HOA’s for my Miami toys. LOL.
I Will be back soon in my tropical playpen, until then I will keep in touch with my friends through this blog. Please keep me informed of all the things that is going on out there. Thanks.
AJ
i’m flattered and humbled that you wish to review my thoughtful and well intentioned postings on lucas’s fine blog. as for me, my favorite postings belong to our resident south beach superstar…kevin tomlinson, or, as he’s known in the biz, “K-Tom.”
does anybody have any comments on The Mark on Brickell building? I have noticed some list prices which are catching my attention. The down side is the HOA seems a little high. Anybody have any insight into the issues both good and bad for this building? For waterfront it seems like a good deal.
gables
plus side is that the building is in a nice spot in brickell. close to a lot but the area is quiet, which is nice. also, the walkway on the water is nice. and of course, there is some major league talent residing at the building. really, it’s an impressive stable of 7’s, 8’s and 9’s.
main negative is that the building itself seems tired when compared to all the new stuff coming up. as for the units, the layouts are cookie cutter and frankly, unimpressive. finally, the hoa is real high and bound to push higher. somewhat surprising since the building should already have good reserves built up.
jcrimes, thanks!
i agree there is nothing remarkable about the inside or outside of the building. its location is what catches my attention. with it not being what i consider a really luxury looking building, the high HOA seems a bit odd. i did not know whether that indicated some deficiency they have had to pay for-design issues which result in higher insurence premiums? just guessing here. but it is a killer location!
Kyle,
I am planning to separate the Miami heading into various neighborhoods. I should be able to do that by the end of the week as well.
AJ,
There already is a local search box. It’s located in the above my contact information on the right hand side. It’s been there since this blog started.
Lucas,
For some reason, the search box is not very effective. My business site has a Google search box with an option to search the local site or the entire web world. The results are very comprehensive. Another advantage having google search bar is that you will also rank higher in Google search. Your web master should be able to do this very easily. I added the Google search bar myself. It is a simple html code cut and paste job. The code can be obtained from google site.