CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Those for and against a proposed redevelopment project in Coral Gables made their case before a three-member panel of licensed architects on Tuesday.
The panel of independent architects presided over Tuesday’s hearing to evaluate the project’s design, city spokesperson Martha Pantin said; their final determination on the building’s aesthetics will be binding unless appealed to the city commission.
The meeting comes as activist Bonnie Bolton continues her efforts to preserve The Garden of Our Lord.
“I and my neighbors have been fighting this project because it fails to adhere to the architectural standards and regulations that the city has in place, and in particular, we have been trying to save this tree,” she said.
Bolton filed an appeal of the city’s 2023 Board of Architects decision green-lighting a proposed nine-story building she alleges will uproot the garden and decades-old tree.
“Political muscle is being used to increase density, increase size, right?” said David Winker, Bolton’s attorney. “Because, remember, they are asking for a favor here.”
Winker said the city should also consider the property rights of the parcel’s neighbors and asked what the public is getting in exchange for the city giving the developer their requested zoning variances.
“I am not anti-development, we have to build housing, but it also has to be compatible to the neighborhood,” he said. “There is no reason they cannot build within scale and preserve the garden and mature trees. The developer, of course, they are going to try to go as high as they want to, they have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders to build as big as they can, and we depend on our government to be at the table and push back on that.”
Previous artistic renderings had documented the scale of the proposed project, which includes residential units, school use space, and so-called “live work” units.
Opponents, which include some of the property’s neighbors, have argued the project is widely out of scale with the area’s surrounding low-level buildings and have expressed deep concern about the developer’s plan to wipe out several of the parcel’s mature trees.
Project site:
“We have been fighting, this month in January, four years to preserve the garden and save the tree,” said Bolton.
She said she has suffered several setbacks in her pursuit to save the garden and the parcel’s mature trees.
“I tried to get the garden designated historic, I went through the entire city process, kept appealing and appealing and appealing and lost it in the courts, and even appealed it in the appeals court and lost it there,” she said. “But recently, my attorney, David Winker, just filed a lawsuit because we are trying to get this tree designated historic, because in the city code, a natural feature can be designated historic.
“And nothing is more natural than a tree.”
She also explained why she remains undeterred in her mission to save the tree.
“Because you never give up until it is over,” she said.
And she said her fight won’t be over if the panel of independent architects at the Special Master hearing doesn’t rule in her favor, which is, in fact, what happened. Her appeal was denied.
“I think the next step is to appeal it to the (city) commission, and if that fails we will file another lawsuit,” she said.
“It is almost hard to believe that we are here today just desperately trying to save something that so obviously should be saved,” added Winker.
The previous developer had been Century Homebuilders. Bolton and Winker say they had been in negotiation to preserve the garden with the firm’s owner, Sergio Pino, but then Pino committed suicide during a time investigators were closing in on a murder-for-hire plot involving his wife.
Crystal Group LLC currently owns the site.
“The project is under contract to Fifield, a new developer who is not going to purchase it until after the zoning board approves the plans,” said Bolton.
At the city’s special master hearing on Tuesday, Local 10 touched base with representatives for the Chicago-based development firm Fifield who were in attendance to request a statement.
Local 10 also emailed Century Homebuilders and Fifield for a statement.
Fifield says the proposed project at 110 Phoenetia Ave. is a mixed-use nine-story building featuring 200 luxury rental units, including apartments and “live-work” spaces.
The developer says it will also include a new building and open-air play area for Crystal Academy, an autism therapy school with 40 students aged 18 months to 9 years old.
Pantin said no tree removal permit has been granted and any request to remove or relocate trees must be reviewed as part of the project’s full permit review process, which has not yet occurred.
In a statement, she said the city “has not approved the removal of any trees related to the proposed development.”
She added that the tree in question can be relocated and that removal is not the only option, saying any final determination regarding the tree will be made only after the project undergoes the required regulatory review.
How old is the tree? Depends on who you ask
In a letter dated Nov. 22, 2022, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens’ Horticulture and Sustainability Senior Director Ian Simpkins estimates the tree is 200 years old and that, in his view, the tree cannot survive relocation.
“This enormous live oak predates the city, it is easily 200 years old,” wrote Simpkins. “And certainly is larger than any live oak that Vizcaya has in its untouched forests. This tree has endured several lifetimes’ worth of hardships—hurricanes, development, drought — but it cannot endure relocation. This tree is far too large—its huge girth would break apart from the pressures put upon it and its root system spreads over the entire part it occupies.”
Representatives for the developer disagree.
They point to a letter dated Oct. 2, 2025 by arborist Michael McCoy of New Leaf Environmental LLC, who wrote: “NLE estimates the age of the tree to be between 84 and 99 years.”
In their view, relocating the tree is a way of “saving it.”
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