Week of February 24, 2010
| Charter school put in Florida Marlins ballpark garage plan By Risa Polansky Looking forward to taking your kids to a Marlins game at the new ballpark? You might also be able to send them to school there. Residential units planned as stadium parking garage liners along Northwest Third Street could end up developed as a charter school instead, with city officials apprehensive about the future of the residential real estate market. "The residential use may have limited potential in the current market and foreseeable future. The City wanted to have another option," said Robert Fenton, project manager, via e-mail. "Educational use" is now an option after city commissioners this month agreed to a handful of "substantial changes" to the major-use special permit for the Marlins parking project, comprised of four garages and six surface lots to serve the 37,000-capacity, retractable-roof stadium rising in Little Havana at the old Orange Bowl site. The original permit called for a 96-unit residential development that would hide ballpark parking garages and help integrate the stadium development into the surrounding neighborhood. A charter school "could possibly replace parts or all of the potential residential units along [Third Street]," Mr. Fenton said. The liners, whether residential or educational, are scheduled to be completed within two years of the ballpark's 2012 opening, so details have yet to be worked out. The city envisions "possibly a sports-related high school," he said, and might eventually seek proposals for plans. Size is undetermined as well. The residential component was originally proposed at 86,278 square feet.
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