OfTheCross
Veteran
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/coral-gables/article251822593.html?
He lives in the middle of a construction zone, surrounded on all sides by parking garages and a 15-story hotel that dwarf his cozy two-bedroom home.
Capote is determined to stay in the dream house his Cuban immigrant parents bought for $135,000 in 1989. Unlike his neighbors, whose houses were demolished after they took buyout offers and fled
The Plaza Coral Gables is a $600 million mixed-used mini city being built by Mexican developer Agave Holdings, an affiliate of the Jose Cuervo tequila company. The 7-acre project along the north side of Ponce de Leon Boulevard seven blocks south of Miracle Mile will encompass 1.1 million square feet of luxury apartments, offices, shops, restaurants, parking garages and a 242-room hotel when it is finished in late 2022.
Capote, a county-employed electrical engineer, and his mother, a school teacher, refused to sell to the developer, real estate agents or flippers who made 35 offers of up to $900,000 for the 1,300-square-foot house his parents purchased years after they lost their home in Cuba following Fidel Castro’s revolution and moved to Miami.
“This house was our American dream,” Capote said.
Their neighbors sold for amounts ranging from $500,000 to $1.2 million, Capote said.
