Coral Gables would gain its biggest park ever under a proposed 30-year development agreement with the University of Miami. The nearly six-acre green space would be called Centennial Park. In exchange, the deal would let UM expand its campus footprint and potentially build a hospital.
Mayor Vince Lago confirmed on Thursday, July 3, that the city has secured UM's commitment to hand over the 5.52-acre parcel known as the Lee Lincoln Site, located across from Henry S. West Laboratory School at 5300 Carillo St. Lago called it "the most significant expansion of parkland in the City's history" in a post on X.
In exchange, the university would gain the right to add hospital use within its campus Multi-Use Area along Ponce de Leon Boulevard, near the University Metrorail Station. UM is not proposing a specific hospital building yet. It is asking the city to permit that use somewhere within the zone, according to the Coral Gables Gazette. A hospital could go on a surface parking lot between the Metrorail station and the Watsco Center. The permitted use would cover inpatient, outpatient and emergency services.
The deal would also reclassify three UM-owned properties along Ponce de Leon Boulevard and Levante Avenue from commercial to university campus designation, pushing the campus boundary southward to Levante Avenue and Red Road. The university's filing states the expanded Multi-Use Area would not encroach on residential neighborhoods along San Amaro and Campo Sano.
How much bigger UM's campus could get
The proposed agreement would replace the current 6.8-million-square-foot development cap with a campus-wide floor area ratio of 1.0, effectively allowing a 30% increase in total building area across UM's 240.6-acre campus. Permitted retail space would rise from 15% to 20% of total floor area.
UM filed the 217-page amendment package on Thursday, June 11. The university's attorney, Jeffrey S. Bass, wrote in application materials that expanding the multiuse subzone "encourages infill and redevelopment in areas of the university campus that are directly across the street from the Miami Dade Metrorail University Station."
The city's Development Review Committee, a technical staff body that does not vote on approvals, reviewed the proposal on Friday, June 26.
The approvals still needed
The agreement still needs approval from the Planning and Zoning Board before heading to the city commission for a final vote. No hearing date has been set publicly. If any required approval fails — including comprehensive plan amendments, zoning code changes, the amended campus master plan conditional use, or parking space transfers — both sides revert to the existing 2010 agreement.
UM would retain a perpetual easement for recreational use of portions of the Lee Lincoln Site even after conveying it to the city.
Two major hospitals already operate near the proposed expansion zone: Baptist Health's Doctors Hospital at 5000 University Drive and South Miami Hospital at 6200 SW 73rd St. Florida no longer requires a certificate of need for new hospitals, removing a regulatory barrier that once limited approvals.
Residents can watch City Commission meetings on YouTube at coralgablestv.com or attend in person at 2151 Salzedo St. The Planning and Zoning Board hearing date had not been announced as of Tuesday, July 8.
