The 8th Village

The Village at Coral Gables and Merrick’s Vision

Alirio Torrealba would be the first to tell you that calling the Village at Coral Gables the eighth Village envisioned by city founder George Merrick is a somewhat fanciful concept. True, Merrick did plan to build many more of his iconic villages beyond the seven that were actually begun, expanding from the Dutch South African, Chinese, and French villages to even more exotic concepts like Persian Canal and Tangier Bazaar villages. But the idea of a Coral Gables Village was not on the drawing board.

“It’s more of a connection with that [Merrick] philosophy,” says Torrealba. “It’s about creating a community with Mediterranean aspects, done in a conservative manner of maintaining urbanism in balance. It repeats the original vision of the city.” 

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That philosophy, of building in a conservative, Mediterranean style that fits within the fabric of the Gables, has been a hallmark of Torrealba’s projects. As the CEO of MG Developer, he has completed a series of elegant, low-rise townhomes — Beatrice Row, Biltmore Row, Alethea Row, and Biltmore Parc — that together form what he calls Biltmore Square, buildings grouped around the intersection of Valencia Avenue and Anderson Road a few blocks west of City Hall. Together, they help transition the high rises of Biltmore Way, like the David William condominium, to the adjacent single-family homes.

The Village at Coral Gables is something else, however, and came to Torrealba almost by accident. In 2019, he was approached by a Colombian architect who had assembled all but two of the properties in a city block bounded by Malaga Avenue, Santander Avenue, Segovia Street, and Hernando Street, just north of the War Memorial Youth Center. “He came to me to see what we could do with these properties,” says Torrealba. “He was motivated by what we were doing, and wanted his properties designed in a similar way.”

Torrealba acquired the properties from the architect and negotiated to purchase the remaining holdouts – including buying a comparable home for one of the owners. He then immediately turned to the award-winning architectural firm De La Guardia Victoria Architects & Urbanists, which had designed his townhouses. For principals Teofilo Victoria and Maria de la Guardia, it was a dream opportunity.

“The idea was of bringing certain types of design, a certain coherence, to the urban block, which is what a village is,” says Victoria. “Urban blocks are marvelous in that sense, to form something very beautiful and coherent.” As far as considering it Merrick’s eighth Village, Victoria says that is not too far off the mark. “We thought that, as an idea, it was a self-reference [to the city]. The title of Village at Coral Gables, like the Chinese Village, is a reference to ourselves and to our history.”

“I do see it as a continuing of the American tradition of building villages,” says de la Guardia. “And whereas in [Merrick’s] tradition of building villages, each really referred to an architectural style, either French, Chinese, Norman, or Dutch South African, the Village at Coral Gables is referring not to a style of architecture from other places, but back to Coral Gables itself.”

De la Guardia and Victoria also embraced the Merrick concept of enriching the urban fabric by creating public spaces on which private property would front — like the homes facing the DeSoto Fountain, the Granada Golf Course, or the open greens of Country Club Prado. “The effort is to create a series of common spaces inside the block, which private residences front… so we have courtyards, gardens facing the townhouses, tree-lined alleys, open spaces to organize your buildings, and not just building out the block in its entirety.”

This concept, of creating spaces around which residences were built, “was how Merrick sold lots,” says de la Guardia. However, whereas all the “villages” referred to exotic architecture from far away, “the Village at Coral Gables refers back to Coral Gables and the balance of the City Beautiful movement and the Garden City movement.”

The design of the Village at Coral Gables has, consequently, won accolades from city officials who applaud the effort to design low-rise housing in the Mediterranean style. “We have never seen a project of this magnitude receive such praise since it was first introduced to the city,” said Mayor Vince Lago. “MG Developer understands the importance of building residences that fall in line with our city’s rich history, tradition, and aesthetic values, which our city is known for.”

The $50 million project, which recently broke ground after being approved by a unanimous city commission, will consist of a mix of townhouses, multi-family lofts, and single detached residences, with prices from $2 to $4 million. It is expected to be completed by the summer of 2025. Beyond the physical beauty of the village, which was scaled back from 52 to 48 units to create more open space, it is designed within the low-rise building code for the area — something for which Torrealba is proud.

“We used the correct zoning in each area and joined it all together,” he says. “For the Santander side, we could only build to four floors. For the Malaga side, we could only build two floors. So, we combined those [restrictions] and joined it all together… For this project, we didn’t ask for any exceptions from the city. We designed a product that was adapted to the city [codes].”

As for the details, and what residents — and anyone else who wants to walk through the various public spaces — will experience, Torealba says he was as fastidious as his architects. “For this to work, it’s something you have to be very dedicated to. It’s an art form that had to be detailed as to how it functions. Everything was important and relevant, right down to the garden spaces.” 

The entrances to the Village from Santander, for example, will include covered arches similar to those in the city’s Douglas Entrance complex at Douglas Road and SW 8th Street. Care was also taken to provide garages on alleyways behind each building, so that no cars would park in the open, green areas. For the final touch, the Village at Coral Gables will incorporate its own street lighting. “The idea is to call it something like a ‘passage of lights,’ surrounding the entire project,” says Torrealba. “It’s going to be very beautiful, for the City Beautiful.”