Coral Gables: the evolution of the city beautiful - Coral Gables Area Report

South Florida CEO, August, 2002

Coral Gables was among the first planned communities in South Florida, and its founders' original vision of tree-lined residential enclaves lives on today. But now the Gables is undergoing a transformation, with vast new retail and commercial projects coming online. Can the city still retain its elegant lifestyle? Its leaders are determined to make sure it does.

* It's a hot summer day in South Florida, the kind when it's hard to imagine spending even a single minute outside the cool relief of an air-conditioned room. In Coral Gables, though, construction sites all over the city are humming with the bustle of progress. Touring the nearly-complete Village of Merrick Park, the mammoth mixed-use project by Maryland-based Rouse Company, is like walking through a real life version of the popular computer game SimCity. More than 3,000 workers from countless construction firms work tirelessly on the project, while cement mixers, dump trucks and huge 18-wheelers laden with Royal Palm trees and other landscape effects roll on and off of the site in preparation for the project's Sept. 27 opening.

Sandy Lewis, the Village's general manager, seems oblivious to the stifling heat as he leads a small group on a hardhat tour of the massive 20-acre property that will soon house office space, luxury rental apartments and retail stores. He points out exquisite details that are already visible through the dust and confusion of construction: teakwood handrails, wrought-iron outdoor lighting fixtures, deep-golden cypress-plank ceilings. "If you just look closely at the finishes," he says, "you'll see that's what really sets us apart from other mixed-use retail centers in MiamiDade. We are really not going to be a mall." He looks truly shocked when asked if the Village will house a Gap store, a Banana Republic or even a Pottery Barn. "No, no, no," Lewis says. "We're very boutique-focused, looking for higher-end retailers." At one end of the property there will be a Neiman Marcus, and at the other, a Nordstrom, the first in Miami-Dade County. "We're just looking for better retail."

It seems only natural that Rouse would choose Coral Gables for this giant undertaking, sandwiched between LeJeune Road and Ponce de Leon Boulevard on the city's south side. The Gables is rich in history, yet poised for change, a place where historic homes and buildings stand alongside new office towers that house companies from around the globe. It's this weave of the new and the traditional that makes Coral Gables so alluring -- for new development, for families who want to put down roots and for leisure and business travelers alike.

"We had looked at the Coral Gables market for ten-plus years," says Jerome Smalley, the Rouse Company's executive vice president. "It has a great residential base, it has great growth characteristics and an international presence." In terms of styling his company's project -- which has a Mediterranean flair -- Smalley explains that the Village will simply slip into the surrounding texture of the Gables.

Well, to an extent. The project is a bit too massive to go unnoticed. But it does "follow all the lines of the New Urbanism," says Jorge Perez, president and CEO of the Related Group of Florida, which is building 120 luxury apartment units in two buildings on the north end of the property. That means that it combines retail, commercial and residential elements, all within walking distance, in the model of European urban centers. Perez says his apartments will be fully integrated into the shopping center, connected by a covered bridge. "You won't have to get wet to go shopping," Perez says of the high-end rentals. "It's going to be an incredible way of living' As Smalley points Out, Rouse doesn't consider the Village of Merrick Park a stand-alone project in the city, unlike other mixed-use retail-anchored developments in different parts of the county. "It's a project that is specifically designed to exist in the city's fabric. It's simply an extension of Coral Gables."

The fabric that Smalley refers to was not a spontaneous phenomenon produced by a disparate group of architects and developers, but something that came from the original concept devised by urban visionary George Merrick, who founded the city in 1926. Merrick created one of the country's first planned communities, with residential and commercial areas strategically located to offer secluded, amenity-rich neighborhoods surrounding a bustling urban core. The architecture was inspired by the Mediterranean -- something he had always dreamed of, according to city literature. Merrick also built a series of themed "villages" of varying architecture at the urging of a former governor of Ohio who spent time in the Gables during its infancy. The $75 million plan called for 14 villages, but only seven were built, including the French Country, Chinese, Dutch South African, Italian and Pioneer villages, all of which survive today.

In some ways, not much has changed in the last 75-plus years -- save for progress. And progress is certainly happening today, largely in the form of new commercial and residential development in the downtown. Notwithstanding, city leaders are determined to preserve the character of the city's overall ambience and beauty.