Built 15 years ago, the city of Miami’s Oak Avenue parking garage was meant to bolster surrounding Coconut Grove businesses, but as the village went into a long decline, half its 402 spaces sat unused most days.
Now, amid a roaring Grove revival that’s drawing crowds of workers, visitors and customers to new offices, shops and restaurants — and boosting demand for parking — an unusual decision by the city parking authority to sell the publicly owned garage to a developer is raising a ruckus among some of its neighbors, who question why the agency would unload a valuable public asset just as it seems to be most needed.
Even though the sale has not closed, the Miami Parking Authority, which has never before sold one of its garages, last month abruptly shut the Oak Avenue facility to all but monthly users, contradicting public assurances by its officials and the buyer, developer David Martin, that it would remain open for daily public use.