Monty’s Coconut Grove

Our firm represented Aligned Bayshore Marina LLC in the due diligence, lease negotiations, zoning entitlements, environmental permitting, and public referenda to permit the redevelopment of Monty’s Coconut Grove, an iconic City-owned waterfront property, as a public-private partnership. We counseled Aligned Bayshore Marina in its efforts to create a more efficient use of existing buildings on the upland portion of the property, including expansion of tenant space into common areas and obtaining City of Miami zoning approvals for re-tenanting of the property with new restaurant, commercial and office uses, as well as securing environmental permits and submerged land leases for a new state of art marina facility.

Since the subject property is publicly owned waterfront, the City of Miami Charter limits future ground lease extensions and required approval from the City electorate. We worked with Aligned, transactional co-counsel, and the City of Miami administration to craft the proposed lease extension and ballot language. The City Commission unanimously approved the ballot language to waive competitive bidding and allow for the proposed lease extension in July 2017. The electorate of the City of Miami approved the referendum measure in November 2017.