Leave the Car at Home

The Link at Douglas Has Finally Broken Ground

May 2019

The idea behind it sounds logical: Build “workforce” housing complexes at the Metrorail stations, and people will use public transport to go to and from their jobs. That, at least, is Miami-Dade County’s justification for permitting the Adler Group and 13th Floor Investments to build a 36-story tower at the Douglas Road Metrorail station on the very edge of Coral Gables.

The $600 million project, called the Link at Douglas, will ultimately comprise five towers on a seven-acre parcel at the Douglas Road station. When finished in five years, it will have 1,500 residential units,a 250,000-square-foot office building and 25,000-square- feet of retail space.

In remarks made at the groundbreaking in April, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez called the project “a cutting edge look into the future” of the county. That may very well be, but not a look into the future of Coral Gables – unless you are talking about how the height will exceed the Gables’ 16-story building cap by 20 stories and be visible from most places in town. Construction of a first 22-story tower will begin this summer. Work on the 36-story tower begins in October.