{"id":380976,"date":"2026-08-25T20:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T20:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/380976\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T20:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T20:20:08","slug":"a-promise-on-density-key-biscayne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/380976\/","title":{"rendered":"A promise on density | Key Biscayne"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coral Reef at Key Biscayne<\/a> has been housing guests in its 51 units for 59 years.<\/p>\n

Now, a prominent Miami developer wants to improve the look of that area at 303 Galen Drive, a building some have called an eyesore, especially in relation to the nearby Ritz-Carlton.<\/p>\n

Walter Defortuna, the brother of Edgardo Defortuna, President, CEO and founder of Fortune International Group, a well-known Miami-based full- service real estate firm, said he has an agreement in place to buy the three-floor (including the garage level) apartment hotel.<\/p>\n

“I need a few guarantees from the city before moving forward,\u201d Walter said.<\/p>\n

Defortuna will make a presentation at Tuesday night’s Village Council meeting<\/a> (item 7E) in which he will show renderings and potential plans to build within the existing code (height) limits and maintain the 51-unit density.<\/p>\n

“(The building) is not in good shape; my argument is that it should be knocked down,” he told Islander News on Monday. “I know people don’t want density and there is a good debate about that. This is my point of view. I’ve lived in Key Biscayne 45 years, I’m a resident. My family lives here, my friends live here. I don’t think any of us want more density, more traffic.<\/p>\n

“All I’m asking is permission to rebuild (with) the same 51 units; the density is already there. (The code) is tricky. If a hurricane were to knock it down, you could rebuild it. (In this case), what would the end result be? … A better building there.”<\/p>\n

Short-term tenants comprise the bulk of the Coral Reef rentals, so a few monthly renters might be affected but they would have plenty of time to find other locations.<\/p>\n

“(We) just finished buying Beach Haus on Sunrise (rental building); we fixed it, it had a lot of issues,” Defortuna said. “But, it had quite a few (condo) owners. We had to buy 19 units, and we started 10 years ago. The only reason we got that done (in a relatively short time) was because of the pandemic.”<\/p>\n

Defortuna also mentioned the noticeable flooding at Coral Reef, around Galen and Sunrise Drive, after hard rains.<\/p>\n

He said his project would include improving the drainage, especially in the parking area, and create a way for the landscape to retain water, similar to what David Martin’s Terra Group (and co-buyer Edgardo Defortuna)<\/a> is doing at the former Silver Sands lot for that new condo (which also is designed not to increase density with its 56 units).<\/p>\n

“It certainly will help the neighborhood,” Walter said of the Coral Reef project, which was purchased by the existing owner for $3 million some 30 years ago, he added.<\/p>\n

He said all buildings in Miami-Dade County, when they reach that 50- or 60-year re-certification inspection, likely fail the first time “because they were built (within the parameters of) old codes.”<\/p>\n

Defortuna pointed out that the existing property “pays only $26,000 in property tax to the Village each year. Upon redevelopment, the property would pay $550,000 more in taxes to the Village each year.”<\/p>\n

So, in this case, “What’s the alternative?” he asked.<\/p>\n

“I’m not making an argument because it’s convenient to me but, in the end, you’d have a much better building and a better tax revenue for the city,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coral Reef at Key Biscayne has been housing guests in its 51 units for 59 years. Now, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[152890,119731,119730,126,123,93247,35091,125,152891,124,948,480,130],"class_list":["post-380976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-coral-reef-key-biscayne","tag-edgardo-defortuna","tag-fortune-international-group","tag-key-biscayne","tag-miami","tag-miami-condos","tag-miami-development","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-new-development","tag-miami-news","tag-miami-real-estate","tag-real-estate","tag-village-council-meeting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}