In 2018, soccer finally found its Miami home. Wynwood displaced some long-term residents in favor of becoming Miami’s next live-work nexus. Celebrity Cruises sailed in with the industry’s most cutting-edge ship, appropriately called Edge. Amazon considered a Miami address for its new HQ2, foolishly choosing instead two pricier, more tax-burdened and even more clogged locales in the north.
These are just a few of the events that made our 2018 Top Business Stories. We chose them on the basis of impact — both immediate and potential — on this ever-changing region we call home.
No. 10: Coconut Grove, which flourished in the 1990s and 2000s as Miami’s nightlife alternative to Miami Beach, began its transformation into an upscale work-and-live destination for the upwardly mobile.
The new CocoWalk, set to be completed in 2019, will feature an office tower, high-end boutique shops and restaurants, salons, spas and gourmet markets. Only a handful of current tenants will remain.
Alongside it have popped up clothing stores like Bonobos and Warby Parker that cater to the high-end hip. After shopping, you can stop into Belgian boulangerie Le Pain Quotidien, local pour-over specialists Panther Coffee, or a new wine bar.
And then there’s Mr. C, a 100-room boutique hotel designed by local designers Arquitectonica that will boast a rooftop pool, restaurant and cabanas overlooking Peacock Park and Biscayne Bay. At ground level, beneath the elevated hotel, will be a garden courtyard and lobby and bar.
“It’s almost like a club for the neighborhood where people can just stumble in and relax,” designer Bernardo Fort-Brescia said. “There is no place like that in Coconut Grove. It’s a restaurant that happens to have a hotel.”
Some longtime Grovites are groaning. Restaurateur Maurizio Farinelli says, optimistically, that a balance is being struck.
“Some of the residents don’t want anything to change in Coconut Grove. Unfortunately, life changes,” Farinelli said. “This place is going in the right direction. But you don’t want massive amounts of building. If they pay attention to how to develop properly, it can only get better.
“But it has to retain the village feel. That’s the essence of Coconut Grove.”
Rob Wile, Miami Herald
Read more here: miamiherald.com/
