Debt-ridden Metronomic is selling properties across Grove, Little Havana. But not all.
Developers who had announced big plans for Coconut Grove before filing for bankruptcy protection earlier this year will now sell many of their holdings in the village and in Little Havana under a settlement with a major creditor.
Under an agreement approved on Dec. 21 by U.S. bankruptcy judge Laurel Isicoff, Metronomic Holdings will sell 17 properties in Miami and two in Illinois. Lender Fuse Group holds $17.7 million in mortgages on the properties, according to court documents.
The properties to be sold include only one of multiple lots along Grand Avenue, the heart of the historically Black West Grove, purchased by Metronomic as part of a plan for a massive mixed-use redevelopment consisting of around a dozen separate buildings and spanning three city blocks. Metronomic planned a boutique hotel serviced by passenger drones on that one lot on Grand, the site of a former gas station, included in the settlement with Fuse.
The other Grand Avenue properties are tied up in Metronomic’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case and foreclosure filings by mortgage holders.
Metronomic and chief executive Ricky Trinidad were virtually unknown in Miami when they unveiled ambitious plans for Grand Avenue in 2018. Persistent legal and financial issues over the properties have long frustrated other developers’ efforts to revitalize the street.
The rest of the Grove properties on the for-sale list include a parking lot on Commodore Plaza in the Grove’s village center that was also earmarked by Metronomic for a boutique hotel, town homes under construction on Bird Avenue and unfinished single-family homes on Oak Avenue in the West Grove.
The other Miami properties on the list consist of vacant lots and completed or unfinished apartment buildings across Little Havana.
Under the court-approved settlement, Metronomic can sell the properties individually or in packages. All sales must be concluded by March 15, 2021. No minimum purchase price was set.
In its Chapter 11 filing, Metronomic listed its 20 largest unsecured debts at $91 million, including $488,538.46 in unpaid property taxes and $1.5 million to Miami-Dade County’s environmental regulation agency, as well as the mortgage debt held by Fuse.
This story was originally published December 29, 2020 at 6:06 PM.