The last few years haven’t been kind to Coconut Grove.
The area’s anchor CocoWalk is in foreclosure. The movie theater closed last fall. The Coconut Grove Playhouse remains shuttered. And the Coconut Grove Convention Center is no longer a tourist draw.
Increased competition and a recession have translated into fewer Grove customers. And no longer is Coconut Grove the only game in town for entertainment.
Mary Brickell Village stole away business, as did the renaissance of other neighborhoods such as downtown South Miami and Miracle Mile in Coral Gables.
The combination has been too much for many business owners. Vacancy rates are up as shops and restaurants throughout the urban village have given up.
“What empty windows will do to a place is create a sense of urgency,” said David Collins, executive director of the Coconut Grove Business Improvement District. “It’s clear that if we’re ever going to work together, it’s now.”
But if you have to hit bottom before you can start improving, then maybe Coconut Grove is poised for recovery.
“Out of the ashes, the Phoenix will rise,” said Miami City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, who lives in the Grove. “I think the Grove has bottomed out. There are some great surviving stories in the Grove. What the Grove needs is a face-lift and a refreshing of itself.”
That’s what the improvement district has tried to focus on since it began operations last April. First actions included cleaning up the trash, installing new street lights, increasing security and funding events designed to bring in people.
Shop owners like Avi Harari say they’re just holding on and hoping that things may have finally reached a turning point.
“I will survive; I don’t have a choice,” said Harari, owner of the Little Big Store and a Grove veteran who started in the late ’80s selling his jewelry from a table on the street. To eke out a living, Harari now sells both jewelry and apparel, got rid of most of his employees and works seven days a week.
“I have faith it’s going to be OK,” he said. “It’s never going to come back to the glory days of late ’80s and early ’90s. But the Grove is still a place that attracts people.”
CocoWalk’s ability to emerge from foreclosure is a critical piece of the puzzle.
Owner PMAT CocoWalk, says it has reached an agreement to modify the terms of its loan. Attorney Michael Ehrenstein confirmed that the “foreclosure proceeding is suspended.”
If successful in resolving its financial issues, PMAT says it plans to move forward with finding tenants and repositioning CocoWalk. But there is also speculation that the property could ultimately wind up in the hands of new owners because PMAT purchased at the height of the market.
“The problem with CocoWalk is their cost basis was so high they were not able to compete,” said Carol Greenberg Brooks, president of Continental Real Estate Cos. “If you own CocoWalk at the right [price], it can be successful. The Grove market needs CocoWalk to succeed.”
There are also some hopeful signs that the Grove may be readying for a revival:
* Construction has started on a 13-screen Muvico Theater scheduled to open — at least partially — for business in late May or early June. The upscale theater will include reserved seating, Sony 4K digital projection in all theaters, a tapasrestaurant and martini bar, plus a mini-bowling alley.
* GreenStreet Cafe owner Sylvano Bignon plans to open LuLu cafe on May 1. It’s going directly across Commodore Plaza from his existing restaurant in a space that has seen a revolving door of restaurants.
* Mayfair in the Grove has recently completed an $11 million renovation that stretched over five years and converted the former retail center into a mixed-use project with offices on all but the ground floor.
* The city of Miami this summer will launch on an approximately $3.5 million project to widen the sidewalks and make the area more pedestrian friendly.
Any improvements can’t come soon enough for Zahir Merali, owner of Rani’s, an upscale denim store that has been in the Grove since 1971.
“I’ve seen the ups and downs of the Grove, but never anything like this. Things are dead,” said Merali, who estimates his business has dropped close to 50 percent in the last three years. “Thank God we have a little bit of a clientele left. They come in and keep us alive.”
Business owners that remain successful in the Grove today, despite the obstacles, say it’s all about drawing their own clientele. No longer can they rely on strolling street traffic.
“Today people are coming to specific businesses in the Grove, as opposed to going to the Grove,” said Bignon, who has been a restaurateur in the district since 1984. “You have to be better today than you were years ago because there are more options. But if you give people the right product they will come.”
Crowds these days are found mostly at restaurants like Bignon’s run by hands-on local operators. Other success stories include Jaguar, George’s in the Grove and Calamari.
Still, the Grove faces many challenges.
One is the perception it has little to offer.
Thomas Conway is one of those who has taken his business elsewhere. The 26-year-old real estate investor used to be a Grove regular when he went to Florida International University. These days he prefers hanging out on Brickell Avenue where he lives and works. At most, Conway heads to the Grove every few months for breakfast or lunch.
“If you walk around the Grove, every other store is empty; the food is mediocre and the shopping is just OK,” Conway said. “There really is nothing in the Grove that draws my attention. Brickell is much more of a Manhattan lifestyle with lots of young professionals, nice restaurants, shopping and bars.”
Others say that young patrons have been driven away by the city’s decision a year ago to cut back late-night drinking hours in the Grove from 5 a.m. to 3 a.m.
John El-Masry, owner of Mr. Moe’s, says his sales have dropped 40 percent since the change and his bottom line profit is off more than 50 percent.
“We are at a competitive disadvantage with all the our neighbors,” El-Masry said. “What has happened is it’s created a perception that the Grove is a sedate place where young people are not welcome.”
Local real estate experts say another problem is the lack of a cohesive marketing plan for the Grove and a sense of place.
Another: rents that grew too high.
At least the rents are fixing themselves, dropping by half in some cases during the economic downturn.
“It’s become much more affordable,” said Michael Comras, a major Grove retail property owner. “Now it’s an opportunity to regroup and bring in new tenants that can afford to make money and be part of the rejuvenation of Coconut Grove.”
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