Despite promises to preserve and not make any changes without full cooperation from neighbors, statements from developers who want to turn an historic Charles Avenue home into a bed & breakfast are running into skepticism.
Miami wasn’t yet a year old when a Bahamian immigrant named Ebenezer Stirrup put the finishing touches on his West Grove home.
Now, 115 years later, the landmark on Charles Avenue that was the first home built in Coconut Grove is in disrepair. And the man who leases the property wants to turn it into a bed and breakfast, with perhaps a café a move that has inflamed some longtime residents, but one the Stirrup family says is the only way to preserve the two-story wood frame home.
If those old walls could speak, they might tell of how Ebenezer Woodberry Frank Stirrup, a carpenter’s apprentice, moved from the Bahamas to Key West in 1888, and from there to what is now Cutler Bay, where he toiled in the hot sun picking pineapples. When he saved enough money, Stirrup moved north to Charles Avenue, eventually building over 100 homes in the Coconut Grove neighborhood.
Stirrup, a firm believer in home ownership, made millions of dollars and lived in the home now nestled between a bank and a condo community on historic Charles Avenue until his death in 1957. His descendants still owns about 30 properties in the area.
That story, touching and historical, is a major reason a gaggle of homeowners who live on Charles and in the surrounding neighborhood are opposing the rezoning of 3242 Charles Ave. to commercial designation. They’ve flocked to meetings of the Coconut Grove Village Council and the city of Miami commission with signed petitions and strong voices.
One of their leaders, Williams A. Armbrister — who will run in November against Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, a supporter of the plan to upgrade the home — has lived in Coconut Grove all of his 60 years. His fear: Changing the zoning on Charles Avenue will open the floodgates to all types of commercialization.
“Charles Avenue was the first street in Coconut Grove in 1880. To have commercial development on Charles Avenue would be a tragedy,” said Armbrister. “It would be setting a trend of what we can expect from our city officials. It would create a domino effect, and no one can prove it won’t.”
To allay Armbrister’s fears, the developers who control the property have added a host of unusual covenants as they seek the zoning approval. Among them: If they should ever purchase the neighboring residential property to the west it can never be rezoned; no vehicular access would be allowed from Charles Avenue to the property; insurance will be purchased to completely restore the home if it’s ever badly damaged, and if the adjacent property is ever purchased and even an attempt is made to rezone it, the developer is liable for $1 million.
Because the home is on the city’s historic registry, changes to it have be approved by the Historic Preservation Board, maybe the toughest board to gain approval from in all of Miami.
“Anyone who is against this is just against it because they’re against it,” said land-use attorney Tucker Gibbs, a neighborhood preservationist who in a rare reversal is representing the developer.
To be sure, a lot about this rezoning attempt is unconventional.
Besides the sturdy covenants, the company 3242 Charles LLC, which is applying for the zoning change, has secured a 50-year lease from the Stirrup family for the property. Partners Rick Kalwani and Gino Falsetto bought what was the former Taurus Steak House property on Main Highway in 2004, and built condos, a restaurant called Calamari’s and a smaller version of the Taurus bar.
Now, 115 years later, the landmark on Charles Avenue that was the first home built in Coconut Grove is in disrepair. And the man who leases the property wants to turn it into a bed and breakfast, with perhaps a café a move that has inflamed some longtime residents, but one the Stirrup family says is the only way to preserve the two-story wood frame home.
If those old walls could speak, they might tell of how Ebenezer Woodberry Frank Stirrup, a carpenter’s apprentice, moved from the Bahamas to Key West in 1888, and from there to what is now Cutler Bay, where he toiled in the hot sun picking pineapples. When he saved enough money, Stirrup moved north to Charles Avenue, eventually building over 100 homes in the Coconut Grove neighborhood.
Stirrup, a firm believer in home ownership, made millions of dollars and lived in the home now nestled between a bank and a condo community on historic Charles Avenue until his death in 1957. His descendants still owns about 30 properties in the area.
That story, touching and historical, is a major reason a gaggle of homeowners who live on Charles and in the surrounding neighborhood are opposing the rezoning of 3242 Charles Ave. to commercial designation. They’ve flocked to meetings of the Coconut Grove Village Council and the city of Miami commission with signed petitions and strong voices.
One of their leaders, Williams A. Armbrister — who will run in November against Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, a supporter of the plan to upgrade the home — has lived in Coconut Grove all of his 60 years. His fear: Changing the zoning on Charles Avenue will open the floodgates to all types of commercialization.
“Charles Avenue was the first street in Coconut Grove in 1880. To have commercial development on Charles Avenue would be a tragedy,” said Armbrister. “It would be setting a trend of what we can expect from our city officials. It would create a domino effect, and no one can prove it won’t.”
To allay Armbrister’s fears, the developers who control the property have added a host of unusual covenants as they seek the zoning approval. Among them: If they should ever purchase the neighboring residential property to the west it can never be rezoned; no vehicular access would be allowed from Charles Avenue to the property; insurance will be purchased to completely restore the home if it’s ever badly damaged, and if the adjacent property is ever purchased and even an attempt is made to rezone it, the developer is liable for $1 million.
Because the home is on the city’s historic registry, changes to it have be approved by the Historic Preservation Board, maybe the toughest board to gain approval from in all of Miami.
“Anyone who is against this is just against it because they’re against it,” said land-use attorney Tucker Gibbs, a neighborhood preservationist who in a rare reversal is representing the developer.
To be sure, a lot about this rezoning attempt is unconventional.
Besides the sturdy covenants, the company 3242 Charles LLC, which is applying for the zoning change, has secured a 50-year lease from the Stirrup family for the property. Partners Rick Kalwani and Gino Falsetto bought what was the former Taurus Steak House property on Main Highway in 2004, and built condos, a restaurant called Calamari’s and a smaller version of the Taurus bar.
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