The CocoWalk of the 90s was nothing like it is today.
Young adults once packed hangouts like Club 609, Baja Beach Club, Dan Marino’s American Sports Bar & Grill, Mezzanotte and Fat Tuesdays — nightlife venues that defined the lifestyle center in Miami’s Coconut Grove during the era.
But the bars, restaurants and nightclubs of that period are no more, and CocoWalk, built in 1990, fell out of style for much of the 2000s.
Today, the destination known as the heart of Coconut Grove nears the end of a two-year renovation that will bring it into a new era of family-friendly locales, plenty of restaurant options for foodies and more office space.
The revamp brought a new tenant mix to CocoWalk, including the upcoming Botánico Gin & Cookhouse, co-owned by Ricardo Ordoñez.
“I remember when I was a teenager, Coconut Grove was the place to be,” Ordoñez said. “When we learned that there was space available in CocoWalk, it became the perfect place for Botánico. I always thought of Coconut Grove being family-oriented, and that’s the new vision for CocoWalk.”
The development team including Federal Realty Investment Trust (NYSE: FRT), the Comras Co. and Grass River Property started multimillion-dollar renovations in late 2018. The trio of partners purchased CocoWalk for $87.5 million in mid-2015.
The renovations included a redesign of CocoWalk’s retail spaces to create plenty of outdoor seating and space for casual meetups, said Stuart Biel, senior VP of regional leasing at Maryland-based Federal Reality Investment Trust. CocoWalk has 150,000 square feet of retail space in four stories along Grand Avenue.
The project also included the construction of the 85,762-square-foot, class-A office building One CocoWalk, which replaced some of the center’s retail space.
Biel said the developers worked to create a tenant mix that could keep residents and tourists coming to CocoWalk throughout the day. The vision is for tenants like YouFit to draw shoppers in the morning, eateries like Sweetgreen to attract a lunch crowd from the nearby office building, and bars like Botánico to keep diners late into the night.
“We want it to be an active space from morning to night that morphs throughout the day,” he said. “All these tenants are very experiential and very community focused, and that’s what people want today.”
“Experiential retail” has been a popular buzz phrase of late for those in the retail industry, especially due to e-commerce trends pushed along by the Covid-19 pandemic. These retailers have additional draws for customers beyond a traditional shopping experience.
Some of the tenants already open at CocoWalk:
- Mr. 01 Extraordinary Pizza
- Salt & Straw
- Edward Beiner Eyewear
- PLANTA Queen
- Bluemercury
- Free People Movement
- Edite Mode
- Europann
- Sweetgreen
- School of Rock
- First Hong Kong Express
- YouFit
Some tenants, Biel said, are still building out their spaces and will open in the coming months.
He added that while the Covid-19 pandemic caused some permitting delays for construction, it didn’t change the final outcome of the project.
Additionally, most of the tenant signings took place prior to the pandemic, he said.
The development features few national chains, which was part of the draw for Ordoñez of Botánico Gin & Cookhouse. He added that he originally wanted to bring the concept to South Miami, but CocoWalk offered him more square footage and enough outdoor space for two patios and an outdoor bar.
Ordoñez said he signed the lease in early 2019. The pandemic has caused internal delays to construction, but he hopes to open the restaurant and bar in mid-May. Botánico occupies 3,000 square feet and will have the capacity for 150 patrons, including 40 seats outside.
The phased reopening of CocoWalk began in late 2020, and changes to the common areas of the center have been completed, Biel said. Tenant build-outs is the only major construction remaining.
More retailers and restaurants expected to open this summer include Botánico, Sushi Garage and Narbona Natural Foods & Farm Market
Matthew Arrojas, South Florida Business Journal
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