Coconut Grove Laundry Planning Redevelopment

MIAMI, Fla. -- The owners of a decades-long fixture at the corner of Matilda Street and Grand Avenue have partnered with a developer to rebuild another segment of the primary artery.

The Espinosa family, owners of Coconut Grove Laundry and Cleaners, don't expect to level buildings that stretch from their business to the Grand 7th convenience store and pharmacy until 2026, but they are working to help tenant businesses secure new locations in time for the reconstruction.

"It's going to be improved," Manny Espinosa said. "We're getting older. We're not going to live forever."

Espinosa said that the family views the redevelopment as a legacy for themselves and for Coconut Grove.

"We've partnered with someone who is going to help us do something beautiful. . .," he said.

The family has according to Espinosa partnered with the Allen Morris Company for the project. The developers with offices in Coral Gables and Atlanta maintain an affiliate hospitality company that, as part of another partnership, acquired the Circa 39 Hotel at 3900 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach for a multimillion dollar renovation.

Espinosa described the people behind Allen Morris as "caring.

"They love Miami as much as we do," he said.

The mixed use building redesign, with open air corridors, water features and the use of oolitic rock, is intended to "keep the Grove as green as possible," Espinosa said.

An initial design of a roughly 1.7-acre parcel by Oppenheim Architecture & Design, which has offices in Miami and Basel, Switzerland, reflects space for offices, luxury condominium residences and retail stores.

Those stores, curated, are to reportedly include shops, wellness-focused businesses and restaurants, one of them situated rooftop and affording views of Biscayne Bay.

The renderings aren't yet finalized and the project not yet given the go-ahead from the city of Miami, Espinosa said.

The Espinosas have provided Coconut Grove customers tailoring and dry cleaning services in the same 3101 Grand Avenue location since 1961.

In the late 1970s, they purchased the property that also includes 3133 and 3135 Grand Avenue currently inhabited by Grand 7th, Asian Thai and the Last Carrot and backing up to Florida Avenue and a parking lot shared among the buildings.

The Espinosa family intends to open a dry cleaning location farther west during reconstruction and to maintain space at the original site when it reopens, Espinosa said.

On the Saturday between Christmas and New Year's Eve, a dozen or more customers steadily streamed into the dry cleaning business over the course of a half-hour.

Tenants T&K Nails and the Last Carrot that Espinosa said is returning to the site after its reconstruction, were likewise bustling.

Sapore di Mare, an Italian seafood restaurant, was opening for the day with a large party, and the UPS Store was distributing flyers for a move to Little Bahamas to the West that an employee said is hopefully completed by February 2025.

Because reconstruction of the Grand Avenue property is expected to be about a year away, few tenant business employees who didn't refer to absent owners expressed concerns.

Kade Jaratsi at Asian Thai Kitchen wasn't one of them.

"It's hard to find a place," she said. "Everything is so expensive."

For a rendering and specifics on the redevelopment project: allenmorris.com/portfo...