Coral Gables discusses road improvements, replacing garages

The Coral Gables City Commission tabled a decision on hiring a consultant to assist with redeveloping two city-owned garages on Andalusia Avenue.

City Manager Pat Salerno brought the item for discussion Tuesday because the two garages, No. 1 behind the Actors’ Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre, and No. 4 across from Publix, with a combined 600 or so spaces, are each about 50 years old.

“They have exceeded their useful life,” Salerno said. “This is an opportunity to obtain additional parking.”

Salerno wanted the city to spend up to $50,000 to hire Abramson & Associates, a Massachusetts-based real estate consulting firm, to help the city devise a plan to redevelop the parking garages.

While the commission agreed with the manager on the need for more parking in the Miracle Mile area, especially if a “streetscape” redesign of the Mile moves forward at a later date, Vice Mayor William Kerdyk Jr. objected to replacing both garages at the same time. He said he wanted to avoid developers lobbying the city with bids for the construction of two garages simultaneously.

“I acknowledge the need for parking,” Kerdyk said. “Where I have a little stomachache is if you put two garages out there you are never getting them back. In my opinion, from my real estate experience, select one of the two and build that. Take a step back. Reanalyze the situation, and see what we need. Once you build them, they are gone.”

Commissioner Ralph Cabrera agreed, citing many unanswered variables concerning future parking plans along Miracle Mile. “Today there are 202 metered parking spaces on the north and south sides of Miracle Mile. Tomorrow, we don’t know if it’s going to be like that. It would be smart for us to take a step back and not go full bore. Once they are developed, they are never coming back or it may come back in 99 years but we won’t be here for that.”

Salerno countered that it made economic sense to redevelop the two garages together.

“This will cost us more in consulting fees if we do it twice and we’re also postponing benefits received,” he said.

“Whatever the commission decides, those two garages need to be replaced today,” Salerno added. “Not five years from now. It will be a number of years before either one of those facilities could be completed.”

Commissioner Frank Quesada suggested tabling the discussion until the next meeting on May 8 so he could learn more about the proposals, with input from the city’s planning and zoning department.

“We want to make sure if the streetscape goes forward we make sure they are not interfering with each other so traffic isn’t a nightmare,’’ Quesada said. “As a resident, parking is a big issue downtown. When I find parking on Miracle Mile I feel like I won a mini lottery that day. Absolutely something that needs to be studied.”

Mayor Jim Cason agreed on the postponement. “I’m not an expert on parking. I’d like some more information before we vote on this,” he said.

The commission voted unanimously to rehear the item. Salerno agreed to place it back on the agenda.

The commission also unanimously agreed to move forward with street resurfacing improvements. It voted to award a nearly $2.1 million contract to H&J Asphalt. The company, one of eight to bid on the project, would begin a first phase resurfacing on Wallace Street from Southwest Eighth Street to Venetia Terrace. The project would begin in late May with striping in July.

In other commission business, Cason asked Salerno to recount the significant events that have taken place since the city manager took office in April 2009.

Among the actions Salerno cited:

• Management employees were required to increase their pension contributions from 5 percent to 10 percent as part of pension reform efforts.

• A 20-year development agreement with the University of Miami to enhance adjacent neighborhoods, including the payment of $22 million to the city over the term of the agreement.

• A settlement with the Biltmore Hotel’s management company that resulted in $5 million paid in back rent and fees to the city. In December, the hotel paid the city $5 million in overdue rent and golf fees, plus interest, stemming from a two-year stalemate on this issue. The current contract calls for the hotel to pay the city 3.5 percent of its gross revenues as rent.

• Boosted reserves from next to nothing in 2009 to a little more than $12 million today.

“While $12 million may sound like a lot of money, it’s still not at a level that insulates us from future events — be they tropical hurricanes or economic tsunamis,” Salerno said.

“What we’ve accomplished in the last three years is fantastic,” Kerdyk said. “How we’ve been able to build from zero to $12.5 million in the worst recession since the Great Depression.”

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