Wynwood is changing at warp speed. Some walls are going up. Others are coming down. Galleries go out. Ducati dealerships come in. The only constant seems to be the neighborhood's ever-evolving coat of graffiti, shed periodically like a serpent's skin.
So it's no surprise that yet another controversial condo project is up for a vote this week. Wednesday night, the city's Planning, Zoning, and Appeals Board will consider a 264-unit condo building by developer David Edelstein.
Edelstein is the man behind luxury hotel the W South Beach. He has partnered with New York real estate mogul Robert Futterman to create a company called SBT Wynwood II.
SBT wants to build what is becoming the standard Miami mixed-use development: a condo with retail and office space on the ground level. It's unclear from the plans how many stories SBT has in mind.
Before the project can go ahead, however, SBT needs to rezone the two acres near NW Third Avenue and 28th Street in Wynwood from light industrial to commercial.
Edelstein's condo venture isn't guaranteed victory. The Planning and Zoning Department has recommended against the project, pointing out it would tower over nearby stores.
More likely, however, is that the planners' recommendations will get bulldozed along with almost everything else in the neighborhood. As SBT's lawyers point out in their application, the city has already green-lighted Wynwood's first hotel just a block to the east.
The eight-story boutique hotel is the brainchild of the late Tony Goldman. It will be built at NW Second Avenue and 27th Street on what is now an empty lot used for valet parking.
In fact, SBT's proposed project is just the tip of a condo iceberg already on a crash course in the historically Puerto Rican neighborhood.
Construction has already begun on Wynwood Central, a $50 million, 385,000-square-foot, mixed-use megaproject that will also be eight stories tall.
Even when planners protest, Wynwood's megaprojects proceed. Last week, the PZAB overwhelmingly approved to allow another developer to rezone a half-acre property on NW 24th Street so it could build another eight-story, 80-unit apartment building.
Wynwood lovers, beware: The condos are coming, whether you want them or not.
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