Katy Perry may have had Alibi Plaza in mind when she wrote “You're hot, then you're cold. You're yes, then you're no. You're in, then you're out. You're up, then you're down.”
The past couple of years have seen plenty of starts and stops when it comes to the future function of the property. Now, a new, ambitious plan is proposed. Stiles, which purchased the property around the start of the year, went before the city on July 22 and officially unveiled the scheme.
The proposal calls for six new buildings on the north side of the property. Two will face Wilton Drive, while the other four will occupy the space where the empty building sits.
The building with Alibi, Hunters, and others will remain essentially the same.
Buildings facing The Drive will be single-story, and offer about 14,000 sq. feet of retail and dining with a large green space behind. The vacant building will be razed and replaced by four- to-five story buildings with about 83 luxury condos.
The Pre-Application Meeting is the first of many steps developers must take before breaking ground. Next, Stiles must submit plans. Then the city’s Development Review Committee (DRC) will look at everything from parking to water to fire safety to traffic and more. This step often occurs during meetings held over seven months.
Then it goes to Planning & Zoning, which will have its own set of criteria to assess and decide if they will recommend approval of any “variances” (granting exceptions to the city code).
Then developers go to the city commission. If they make it that far, they go to the county for approval. Public input will be taken at nearly every stage.
People familiar with the process say if all goes well, groundbreaking could happen in early 2027.
You can see the full design at wiltonmanors.gov.
A Brief History
The previous owner spent years working on Wilma On The Drive, an eight-story apartment building with street-level shopping and a parking garage where the now-vacant building sits. Tenants weren’t allowed to renew their leases.
Eventually they sold it to Stiles, which owned the property until about 2005.
Stiles scrapped plans in favor of giving the occupied building a facelift and re-leasing the empty stores. One person who looked at leasing said owners didn’t want a bar, and any restaurant would need to have about 60% of sales be food.
