‘This is declaring a war.’ Late-night noise sparks fight in Miami’s Wynwood.
A dispute over late-night noise in Wynwood has snowballed into a fight over the future of the red-hot district: Can the funky, art-splashed neighborhood, with its buzzy nightclubs and open-air events, retain its character if people start living there?
Billionaire developer Moishe Mana, who owns 45 contiguous acres of land in Wynwood, has declared war on the Wynwood Business Improvement District (BID), claiming the group is catering to real estate developers who want to gut the neighborhood while profiting from luxury residential developments.
“Every time there is a cool place in Miami, we start building residential and we blow up the eco-system and then move on to the next neighborhood,” Mana told the Herald. “It happened in South Beach and Coconut Grove and Brickell. Wynwood is the only place we have left where people can come and meet and walk around and listen to music and enjoy themselves. The minute we become residential, there’s no point for tourists to come. This is declaring a war on tourism.”
But Albert Garcia, chairman of the BID, claims Mana is simply lashing out after police shut down the open-air pop-up event and dining space Wynwood Marketplace, which is held at 2250 NW Second Ave. on a parcel of land owned by Mana.
Failure to comply
The Marketplace was closed by City of Miami officials on Feb. 15 for failing to comply with the permit allowing temporary uses on vacant land. The permit — which had been issued the day before — required the operator to cease and desist all uses until it came to complete compliance.
“[Wynwood Marketplace] had been operating without a permit for over three years,” Garcia said. “During that time, they also grossly exceeded what was previously permitted in 2015 and expanded the scope and size of the programs with zero permitting.
“Many people in the community feel that he is receiving special treatment and that he has no regard of being part of a community that has consensus and a common vision,” Garcia said. “Hundreds of mom-and-pop business owners are paying impact fees, insurance, alcohol licenses, in order to just open their doors for the first time.”
The Mana-owned company Megan Holdings LLC had not renewed its permit for Wynwood Marketplace since April 20, 2017, when the previous one expired. The company applied for the new permit only after repeated complaints from Wynwood residents and business owners about the Marketplace and other events organized by SWARM, the company that operates the Marketplace.
After the shutdown, Mana fired off a series of angry text messages to Manny Gonzalez, executive director of the BID, threatening that his company would never work with the group until Gonzalez was fired and that the BID needed to be dismantled. Gonzalez has since filed for whistleblower protection with the city of Miami. The text messages were first obtained and reported on by Miami news blogger Al Crespo.
Mana also texted police Commander Dan Kerr of the Wynwood Neighborhood Enhancement Team, who carried out the City’s cease and desist order, accusing him of having been “weaponized.”
“I stand behind the spirit of those text messages,” Mana said. “It shows how passionate and emotional I am about protecting Wynwood and the interests of Miami. Manny Gonzalez is not relevant because he’s not executing the vision of what Wynwood needs and he’s using the law enforcement against these businesses.
“I’ve also received dozens of complaints about Commander Kerr’s behavior and I stand behind those texts as well,” Mana said. “Police cannot be gestapos. They need to be part of the community and arbitrate problems between residents. We need someone who is a better fit for the neighborhood. Sometimes you need a match to start something.”
Emergency meetings
In response to the shutdown, Mana is holding an “emergency community meeting” at 4 p.m. March 3 at the Mana Wynwood Convention Center, located at 318 NW 23rd St. in Miami. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has confirmed his attendance, Chief of Police Jorge Colina and Commissioner Keon Hardemon have been invited.
The meeting is part of #SaveWynwood, an anonymous petition created on Change.org a week after the Marketplace was closed that currently has 26,000 supporters. The petition warns of the BID’s ongoing effort to “force virtually all nightclubs and events in Wynwood to close at 11 p.m. Their goal is for only venues with certain permits, built into luxury developments, to be able to operate late into the night.”
In response, the BID has called for a separate meeting just hours before the #SaveWynwood meeting. “Setting the Record Straight on Mana” is to be held at 9 a.m. March 3 at The Light Box at Goldman Warehouse, 404 NW 26th St.
In an email inviting Wynwood business owners and stakeholders to the meeting, the BID wrote “We want to make it very clear: the Wynwood BID has never ‘proposed’ closing nightlife venues, or any type of bona fide businesses for that matter, in our neighborhood at 11 p.m. In fact, over the past several years, the BID has and continues to be the strongest advocate working on behalf of our restaurants, bars and nightlife venues to ensure that the City of Miami Commission extends alcohol hours until 5 a.m. in Wynwood on an annual basis during Art Week, New Year’s and Music Week, as well as last month’s Super Bowl.”
In the pipeline
The Wynwood BID was created in 2013 to help the area’s transformation from industrial district to urban neighborhood. There are currently more than $1 billion of developments in various stages of construction throughout Wynwood, including large residential projects by Lennar, Property Markets Group and the London-based The Collective.
Even the Italian clothing giant Diesel is entering the real estate market with its first luxury condo tower, to be located in Wynwood.
But the first new residential construction in the neighborhood — the Related Group’s 289-unit Wynwood25 apartment building — just opened last summer. The building is 90 percent leased, but its tenants have also been test subjects for the 24/7 live-work-play Wynwood lifestyle.
“The incredible, undeniable energy of Wynwood is a key motivator behind Related’s desire to be a part of this dynamic community,” said Jon Paul Pérez, executive vice president of The Related Group. “While we have had issues with noise into the late hours, we’re looking for solutions that serve the community as a whole. We have no intention of shutting down the party for our residents, or the millions of visitors who have fallen in love with Wynwood.”
But Mana, who said he is still planning to develop a Wynwood trade hub that would connect Latin America to China, insists residential isn’t a good fit for the neighborhood.
“My vision is for Wynwood to have business and entertainment,” he said. “They can co-exist. Residential and entertainment cannot co-exist. We need to keep this playground open for all of Miami. Does everybody have to go home just because you want to go to sleep now? If people want to come live in this neighborhood, they should know what the neighborhood is. If the developers want to build residential, they should build thicker windows.”
This story was originally published February 27, 2020 at 3:02 PM.
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