Harry Gross’ G-Holdings has filed a lawsuit against the city of Aventura and the developers of Cassa Residences, seeking to reverse recent zoning changes for a planned mixed-use project. The legal action follows the city’s approval last month of zoning modifications for the site at 2770 Northeast 187th Street and 2822-2850 Northeast 187th Street.
Miami Off Center Associates, which is a partnership between The Lojeta Group based in Boca Raton and a Delaware entity, plans to build a 17-story tower with 208 apartments and 12,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. The project will also include a seven-story parking garage. An existing one-story commercial building, largely occupied by Mo’s Bagels & Deli, will remain on the site.
“We have been engaged in discussions with our neighbor, and we are optimistic we will be able to resolve it,” said Neisen Kasdin, an Akerman attorney representing G-Holdings. “The result will be good for their project, for our project and for the city.”
City officials and Michael Marrero, land use lawyer for Cassa Residences, did not respond to requests for comment.
According to court filings dated August 8 and an appeals petition submitted by G-Holdings, the company claims that the rezoning does not comply with Aventura’s comprehensive development plan. G-Holdings argues that these changes negatively affect its own adjacent development at the northwest corner of Northeast 185th Street and Northeast 28th Court.
G-Holdings previously obtained approvals in 2018 for Port Aventura, a proposed two-tower condo-hotel featuring 121 condos and 167 hotel rooms over 17 stories. Although site plan and permit approvals are in place, construction has yet to begin. Kasdin indicated that groundbreaking is expected next year. Records show G-Holdings purchased its development site in 2015 for $21.6 million.
Under earlier zoning regulations, Cassa Residences would have been limited to a commercial building no taller than twelve stories. However, at its July meeting, the Aventura City Commission approved measures allowing up to seventeen stories—five more than previously permitted—increasing residential density from twenty-five units per acre to sixty-nine units per acre and reducing minimum apartment sizes from nine hundred square feet down to eight hundred or eight hundred fifteen square feet.
G-Holdings’ lawsuit states that it “is aggrieved and adversely affected by the City’s approval,” adding that it “has expended significant resources in developing Port Aventura.”
The complaint further alleges that the new parking garage will block light and air from Port Aventura’s lower floors while much of the upper floors will also lose access to light due to Cassa Residences’ height increase.
Additionally, G-Holdings claims that approval of Cassa Residences’ rezoning was tied to reserving twelve units under Aventura’s Hero Housing program—a local initiative offering below-market apartments to teachers and first responders working in the city.
Kasdin noted that any settlement could involve adjustments both to zoning rules and aspects of Cassa Residences’ design.
