Quay Commons air rights trial continued until August

While the fate of the proposed One Park condominium tower in The Quay remains in limbo over an investigation into an alleged inducement to a Planning Board member, the courtroom battle about the air rights above Quay Commons has been delayed until late summer.

Last Friday, a hearing over a continuance in the case was held by 12th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Hunter Carroll. After hearing from The Quay master developer Quay Ventures that it needed at least three weeks to research and produce required documents, Carroll postponed the June hearing until a three-week period beginning Aug. 14. Also scheduled is a hearing on May 22 to resolve any further outstanding discovery issues between the parties.

Developer Property Markets Group of Miami proposes to build One Park above Quay Commons, the primary access street into The Quay, connecting blocks 1 and 9 over a breezeway it says will be activated with street-level amenities such as retail and restaurant space. Residents of Block 6 in The Quay — the Ritz Carlton Residences — have challenged that the air rights above Quay Commons cannot be conveyed to One Park and that they belong to the master association. 

The city is not involved in the air rights legal matter, but it has been mired in repeated delays in the legislative hearing process before the Planning Board. At issue is a request by One Park to amend the 2016 general development agreement to allow blocks 1 and 9 to be combined into one building. That hearing has been indefinitely suspended pending the outcome of an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement over whether a contact by one of the investors in One Park with Planning Board member Michael Halflants — an architect — regarding an unrelated project was criminal in nature. 

Once resumed, the Planning Board will make a recommendation to the City Commission to approve or deny the amendment to the general development plan. The commission will then schedule its own legislative hearing on the matter. If approved, a quasi-judicial hearing for site plan approval will first go before the Planning Board for recommendation, and then to the City Commission.

Should Carroll rule against One Park on the air rights challenge, however, it would render moot hearings over the project as currently designed.

Carroll is expected to make his ruling prior to September. When legislative hearings may resume is unknown.