Spotlight 52-241119 Give Miami Day Laundry

Today’s 52^nd edition of the new Spotlight passes several milestones:

240 stories,
50 contributing authors,
Six months of publication, and
the Spotlight’s first Give Miami Day.

If you read the Coconut Grove Spotlight and like what we’re doing, please visit our Give Miami Day donation page and make a gift of $25 or more between now and midnight on Thursday. With your support, we can recruit and pay more freelance journalists to cover the local news that matters to you. Thank you for supporting grassroots journalism in Miami.

In this week’s Spotlight …

Proposed redevelopment from Munroe tennis park to Main Highway.

While Center Grove braces for changes at a key downtown intersection, its impact could felt much farther.

The Spotlight website is organized by topic to enable easy browsing. For example, articles on land development and other economic activity are found in the menu bar under “Work”. Opinion pieces of all types are located with the menu “Community Voices”

Developer Shares Vision for Center Grove Project

Though details are still scarce, the vision for a new mixed-use project near Coconut Grove Elementary School is dense, pedestrian friendly, and far more upscale than the strip of homespun retailers it will replace.

By David Villano

The new mixed-used development will include a five-story structure rising along Grand Avenue, replacing the Grand 7th pharmacy and convenience store, Coconut Grove Laundry & Cleaners and other small businesses. (David Villano for the Spotlight.)

Walkable, interconnected, and decidedly upscale. That’s the development vision for a 1.7-acre parcel of land in Center Grove now occupied by a family-owned dry cleaners, a handful of other small businesses, and a row of single-family homes a stone’s throw from Coconut Grove Elementary School.

“A world class project,” promises Spencer Morris, president of Coral-Gables-based Allen Morris Company, one of three development partners overseeing the venture. He said the project’s name will be announced soon.

In an interview with the Spotlight, Morris described the project as a high-end “boutique” mixed-use development consisting of offices, retail space, and residential units. A five-story building will run along Grand Avenue from Matilda Street to the U.S. Post Office parking lot. Behind it, a three-story structure along Florida Avenue will replace a row of single-family homes built in the 1930s.