Group to evaluate Parrot Jungle site

The Village of Pinecrest has agreed to create a Parrot Jungle committee that will evaluate the use of the property in the event the village can purchase it.

A private group, Preserve the Jungle, headed by Gary Matzner had been the lone fund-raising voice for the village in its bid to come up with between $9 million and $12 million to purchase the property at 11000 SW 57th Ave.

Pinecrest Mayor Evelyn Greer said she was waiting for Parrot Jungle to sign a lease with the city of Miami before creating the group. Cash-strapped Miami reached a 45-year agreement — the city’s largest public-private venture since Bayside Marketplace — with Parrot Jungle owner Bern Levine in March.

Levine agreed to pay the city $200,000 the first year of operation, $300,000 the second and $400,000 or 5 percent of gross sales, whichever is larger, each year after that. It is expected to open in spring 1999.

“Now it’s appropriate for the village to take over the responsibility to look for what the village could use the property for if we acquire it,” she said.

Pinecrest Councilman Leslie Bowe will oversee a committee that will have two representatives appointed by the village’s four other council members, for a total of 10 members. None have been chosen yet and no meeting dates have been scheduled.

If interested in joining the committee call Pinecrest City Hall at 234-2121 or Greer at 854-8989.

— CHARLES RABIN