With groundbreaking on the horizon for the upscale Ziggurat mixed-use project on Grand Avenue, a half dozen small business owners are finding new locations to call home.
As groundbreaking nears for Ziggurat, the five-story, mixed-use project on Grand Avenue in Center Grove, displaced merchants are finding new homes across Coconut Grove.
Of the six businesses impacted, three have found new homes, one has narrowed the search to two properties and another has purchased new property nearby.
Demolition on the 1.7-acre site, at the corner of Grand Avenue and Matilda Street, is expected to begin late this year. The existing tenants, principally mom-and-pop operations, have been told to vacate by November 1.
Among those with new locations is the UPS Store which is leasing space at the southeast corner of Grand Avenue and Douglas Road. The storefront, which will open mid-July, will be significantly larger than their current space and will have 10 designated parking spots for visitors.
“I’m thinking it’s going to help business, because our accessibility is going to be easier. We’ve let customers know for a while that that’s where we’re going, and we’ve had nothing but, for the most part, really positive feedback on the location,” owner Jeffrey Catanach told the Spotlight.
Catanach believes the new location will help attract new customers from Coral Gables who will find easier access from U.S. 1.
Also announcing a new Grove location is Italian restaurant staple Sapore di Mare, which expects to move this fall just a block away, occupying the space on Main Highway recently vacated by Like Mike Trattoria Modern, next to Fireman Derek’s.
Light construction on the restaurant’s new home is underway. Sapore di Mare, which translates to “taste of the sea” in Italian, opened in 2014.
Ziggurat will include 100,000 square feet of office space, 40,000 square feet of retail space, a rooftop restaurant, and 18 “ultra-luxury residences” ranging in price from $2.5 million to $8 million.
The project is a partnership of Coral Gables-based Allen Morris Company, Coconut Grove commercial property owner Joseph Harrison III, and the Espinosa family, the long-time owners and operators of Coconut Grove Laundry & Cleaners, which also will make way for the new construction.
The Espinosa family owns nearly all of the property slated for the development. Charlie Espinosa, one of the co-owners, previously told the Spotlight the laundromat would be a part of the new development. He now says the family is “still far from ready to announce a move” as the project will take “months of design, permitting, demolition, construction, etc.”
On May 21 the Espinosa family’s holding company purchased three contiguous lots on the corner of Frow Avenue and Douglas Road in West Grove for $3.3 million, according to county property records. A vacant one-story building – the former home of the Shop Right Meat Market — sits on one of the three parcels, which together cover 14,500 square feet.
Also on the move is T&K Nails. Manager Trina Le says they’ve found space at the strip mall at the corner of U.S .1 and 27th Avenue, alongside Pinecrest Bakery and Pet Supermarket.
Le believes the new location will bring in new customers, but is worried the move will impact business in the short term. “We have a lot of clients that walk on Grand who won’t see us anymore,” she said.
Among the businesses still in pursuit of a new location is the Grove’s oldest continually operating restaurant, The Last Carrot.
Founded by Michael Compton in 1975, the quick-eats establishment has been dishing up healthy food options for 50 years. In 2001 the restaurant was taken over by his daughters Meadow and Erin Compton, who continue to run it today.
Compton tells the Spotlight that two locations within the broader Coconut Grove area are being considered. And a spokesperson for the Allen Morris Company said the company is working with Compton to secure a temporary location with the “hope of potentially bringing them back to the [Ziggurat] project.”
Owners of Grand 7th Pharmacy – Center Grove’s only convenience store – did not respond to multiple requests for comment regarding future plans.
