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Citing concerns over a lack of public participation, Miami’s Planning Advisory Board late Wednesday night deferred until next month the possible rezoning of a massive mixed-use project in Miami’s Park West neighborhood.

City planners submitted the application to create a special district for the 25-acre site where developer Miami Worldcenter Group wants to build 12 million square feet of hotels, restaurants, offices, residences and retail.

Board chairwoman Arva Moore Parks led a 6-2 majority to delay the zoning vote until Oct. 1. The delay was meant to give the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency a chance to review the proposed zoning change and hold a public hearing on the matter at its next meeting.

However, the new date won’t resolve the issue of public participation and won’t give the CRA a chance to vote on the issue.

The CRA doesn’t meet again until Oct. 27, nearly a month after the zoning issue is to come before the advisory board once more.

James Villacorta, the CRA’s executive director, said he would raise the issue Thursday during a meeting with Worldcenter officials.

Nitin Motwani, a principal and the project’s managing director, said he would consider all options including holding a public meeting to discuss the proposed zoning for the project site. Motwani’s family is a partner in the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Fort Lauderdale.

Art Falcone, who sold homebuilder Transeastern to now-bankrupt TOUSA for $1 billion, and real estate investor Marc Roberts, lead Worldcenter Group. Roberts is also an investor in Trump International Hotel.

Motwani said given the current economy and the high volume of condominiums in the market, the project, if approved, will focus first on retail, restaurants and hospitality payday loans in 1 hour. He said the retail will feature high-end boutique stores and not big boxes.

“It will be dictated by the market,” said Motwani, about the commercial make-up of the project.

The project covers nine blocks and is bound by Northeast Second Avenue on the east, North Miami Avenue on the west, Northeast 11th Street on the north and Northeast Sixth Street on the south. The project is located between Miami Dade College and the mainland on-ramp to the MacArthur Causeway.

Adam Greenberg, managing director of commercial brokerage and financing facilitator for BayBridge Real Estate Group, which is not affiliated with the project, said the project is definitely in a holding pattern for the next couple of years, in light of the current state of the financial markets.

Peter Zalewski, a principal of Condo Vultures Realty, believes the project will get the city’s approval because Miami officials need a project to jumpstart the downtown area as an international destination. He said the developer might move forward, despite the market’s current financial crisis.

“They will probably self-fund,” he speculated. “In one or two years, they will go out and get financing.”

Motwani said self-funding to start the project was a possible scenario, with the developer seeking financing a year or two after the project start.

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