Midtown Walmart Hits Another Snag

It looks like Walmart’s controversial plans for a new Midtown store have hit another snag. A couple of months back, they were forced to stop construction because their permit expired and then it was discovered that they didn’t have full chain of title on their site. Oops. Now, a city attorney was caught lying to the commissioner in order to influence a zoning decision. Yikes.

According to Grant Stern, the leader of the #NoWalmartInMidtown movement, the attorney lied about their involvement with the project and then emails uncovered from the IT department showed otherwise. When confronted, the attorney said that it was all just because a lobbyist was bothering them. There is already a big investigation going down at City Hall with the city attorney saying that this is all just a big misunderstanding even though the evidence indicates otherwise.

To be honest, I really hope Walmart isn’t able to complete their Midtown project. My personal thoughts on them as corporate citizens aside, they’re just not a fit for that location. The intersection of NE36th Street & North Miami Avenue just to the north of the build site has been named one of the ten worst intersections in South Florida. Could you imagine how the intersection will be after bringing in the traffic from Walmart shoppers and the trucks that will keep the store stocked?

It is a well-known fact that big box stores (especially Walmart) strip communities of their culture and force local shops to close their doors. The Walmart would affect the culture of not only Midtown, but also the neighboring areas of the Design District and Wynwood. It also just seems odd to have a Walmart within a mile of an Hermes store. No?

Is There a Way to Save Midtown’s Central Green Space?

Photo by Sean McCaughan.

The great big empty lawn in the center of Midtown Miami has sat there for years as Midtown gradually gets built up around it. Originally meant to be the location of an entertainment center and mall when Midtown was first developed from the old Buena Vista Rail Yards, the huge lawn has for years been literally nothing but a luscious green carpet of grass, with the potential to make a fantastic public space, parkland, gardens, Central Park, etc. for the entire neighborhood. Back in 2012, I wondered what was up, and the answer was nothing. The assumption today in 2016 is that it still will be developed, by its owners or whoever they sell it to, someday. But is there an alternative? I posed the question to some friends on Facebook and one, urban planner Donald Shockey, offered an intriguing potential solution:

The City could aggressively offer the owners expanded transferable development rights to make this a permanent park and still profit from their investment. This is very feasible and would provide a desperately needed central park to serve Midtown, Wynwood, and Edgewater. This would be an enormously transformative project for Miami.

City Revokes Midtown Walmart Construction Permit

Photo by Lucas Lechuga.

The Miami Building Department has nailed the controversial new Walmart in Midtown Miami, revoking a construction permit it issued near the end of last year. The reason for the usual move was explained as a lack of unity of title, in a letter issued to the retailer in February and reported by The Next Miami. “A partner in the project, Midtown Opportunities, needed to sign a covenant in lieu of unity of title, along with the Midtown Community Development District.” Evidently, when Walmart didn’t fix the situation in the intervening four months, well, there went the permit. Neighborhood activist and opposition leader Grant Stern’s response conveys a subtle hint of satisfaction: “I’m glad the city of Miami finally revoked Walmart’s foundation permit. Walmart’s plan has a fatal design flaw, that violates Miami21 and that we’ve been pointing out to our public officials in writing, in public meetings and in court since 2013.”

Update (October 2020): The parcel of land where a Walmart was slated to be built in Midtown Miami still remains vacant. Gio Midtown, an apartment complex, has been built across the street to the east of it.

Midtown Construction Update: Walmart’s a’ Comin’

Hyde Midtown. All photos by Lucas Lechuga.

Construction at Midtown Miami is heating up, with one tower already topped off, another looking close, and a third well off the ground. Midtown 36, a residential tower with a considerable amount of ground floor retail and gallery space has topped off, while Midtown 5, which is planned to be a rental apartment tower (and thus not much info has been released) looks like it’s nearing or at top off. Finally, fresh off of having sold the hotel portion of Hyde Midtown, construction is zipping along. We thought we saw a recent announcement about the sales center closing in 90 days, but a search came up empty, so that may or may not be happening. Oh well. And then of course there’s the Midtown Walmart, a source of so much drama. Having broken ground back in January, after five months it’s still not looking like much.