By Coral Gables Gazette staff

After spending four months — split between the end of last year and the beginning of this year — exploring the possibility of creating a new business improvement district under the banner of the “Downtown Coral Gables Partnership,” the city has quietly decided not to move forward with the proposal.

“At this time, no decision has been made to move forward with the creation of the Downtown Coral Gables Partnership,” said Martha Pantin, the city’s director of Communications and Public Affairs.

The city never announced the decision publicly. It was confirmed only in response to questions from the Gazette.

Pantin acknowledged the work of Progressive Urban Management Associates (PUMA), the national consulting firm hired to study the concept, but said the outreach process ultimately found insufficient support to justify advancing the proposal.

“Following PUMA’s outreach efforts and extensive engagement with residents, property owners, restaurateurs and other stakeholders within the Central Business District, it was determined that there was not sufficient support among property owners to establish the assessment district required for the BID,” Pantin said in an email to the Gazette. “As a result, the initiative has been shelved for the time being.”

The consultant saw it coming in February

PUMA had originally been expected to present its findings to the City Commission. But as early as February, the firm’s principals cautioned city officials that the proposal’s biggest hurdle would not be its merits, but whether enough property owners were willing to pay for it.

“The other thing we look for I would characterize as political will,” PUMA President Brad Segal told the city’s Economic Development Board in February. “Is there a willingness by property owners and the enthusiasm by property owners, in particular, and businesses to support the concept? Is there cohesion between local government and the downtown business community? And I would say on that one, the jury’s out.”

Pantin said PUMA is now completing its final report, which will summarize the months-long outreach effort and preserve the work should a future commission decide to revisit the idea.

“PUMA is currently finalizing its findings and business plan, which will document the outreach process, key findings, and recommendations, as well as outline potential next steps should there be interest in revisiting the concept in the future,” she said.

The consultants carried out an extensive public engagement campaign that included online surveys, virtual meetings, one-on-one stakeholder interviews and public workshops. Yet attendance at many of the public sessions was sparse, underscoring what ultimately became the project’s central challenge: a lack of broad enthusiasm from the property owners whose financial support would have been required.

A proposal once presented as moving forward

The outcome marks a notable reversal from just months ago. Last fall, city leaders appeared poised to create the new district. Mayor Vince Lago highlighted the Downtown Coral Gables Partnership during his State of the City address, and the city launched a webpage proclaiming that it was “moving forward with plans to create a new district to enhance and support its downtown.”

The proposal was intended to revive, in a new form, Coral Gables’ former Business Improvement District, which for years funded supplemental services such as marketing, special events, beautification and economic development before its taxing authority expired. Under Florida law, only the city can establish a special assessment district with taxing authority, prompting officials to pursue a new entity under the Downtown Coral Gables Partnership name.

Expanded district carried a multimillion-dollar price tag

Consultants recommended a significantly expanded district stretching beyond Miracle Mile to include The Plaza Coral Gables and surrounding commercial areas. They proposed dividing downtown into three assessment zones, with Miracle Mile paying the highest rate because it would receive the greatest concentration of services. Depending on the funding level selected, annual assessments would have ranged from roughly 7.5 cents to 48 cents per square foot, generating between $1.75 million and $2.75 million annually for enhanced marketing, programming, streetscape maintenance, public art and business recruitment.

But the financing model also proved to be one of the proposal’s greatest obstacles.

No private-sector champion emerged

Creating the district would have required support from roughly 300 downtown property owners, each facing a new annual assessment. While many stakeholders agreed that downtown could benefit from stronger marketing, additional events and improved maintenance, consultants acknowledged they never found the private-sector champions typically needed to build momentum for such an effort.

“These districts are successful when there are champions who are going to move it and carry it,” Segal said, noting that the absence of business and property-owner leadership is the most common reason PUMA recommends against moving forward with similar districts across the country.

PUMA had planned additional meetings with several of downtown’s largest property owners, including Terranova Corp., Miracle Mile’s largest landlord, after already receiving support from the owners of The Plaza Coral Gables. Even so, no major property owner ultimately emerged to publicly lead the initiative or organize support among the hundreds of businesses and property owners whose approval would have been necessary for the district to become a reality.

Final report preserves the plan for another day

For now, the idea of a Downtown Coral Gables Partnership remains just that — an idea. While the city is preserving PUMA’s work should interest resurface in the future, officials have put the proposal on indefinite hold after concluding that the political and financial support needed to create a new downtown assessment district simply was not there.