2 Mayors Take Center Stage In Coconut Grove Playhouse Drama

COCONUT GROVE, FL — Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez have taken center stage in a drama playing out over a planned renovation of the historic Coconut Grove Playhouse.

Appearing before reporters in front of the shuttered theater on Friday, Suarez demanded that county officials come up with a better plan to restore the 1927 structure while announcing his first veto to bring down the curtain on a plan that won approval from the Miami City Commission. The county leases the building from the state and has committed to restoring the theater in a joint project with Florida International University.

"For the first time in my tenure as mayor, since November of 2017, I have decided to exercise my veto over an action of the city commission," Suarez told reporters. "This decision is based on a variety of factors but the overriding, the overarching factor, is preserving one of our most historical and precious assets in the city of Miami."

Gimenez fired back later in the day by saying Suarez' veto contradicted the will of the people and he pledged to move forward with the plan after agreeing to Suarez' request for a meeting.

"Today’s veto contradicts the professional recommendation of the city of Miami’s own historic preservation officer to support the County-FIU project," Gimenez said in a statement. "And it defies the will of the people, with an independent poll confirming that 78% of Coconut Grove residents are strongly in favor of the County-FIU Coconut Grove Playhouse project."

Gimenez said the county remained "more committed than ever" to bring great theater back to Coconut Grove.

"We are fully restoring the 1927 iconic and historic front building of the Coconut Grove Playhouse and returning great dramatic theater to this place where theater began in our community," he said. "We have worked hard to celebrate the history of the Coconut Grove Playhouse, to revitalize this important gateway to the Grove, and to respect the village scale and ambiance so important to Coconut Grove’s business district and the adjoining West Grove residential neighborhood."

Attorney David Winker, who is representing a number of concerned Coconut Grove residents, applauded Suarez' use of his veto power.

"My clients' goal is to preserve the entire exterior of the playhouse," he said. "We will be watching to see if the City Commission overrides the mayor's veto at next week's commission meeting. This is the first time Mayor Francis has used his veto power, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out."

Suarez called the theater "one of the most historical and precious assets" in the city as he read from the building's 2005 historical designation report.

"The theater was intended to be Miami's most elaborate theater with the largest seating capacity of any theater," Suarez said reading from the document. He said the theater was later remodeled in 1955 to become the Coconut Grove Playhouse, Miami's first live, legitimate theater.

According to Miami-Dade County officials, the plan would create an "elegant campus with the historic front building on Main Highway restored faithfully to its 1927 design," while adding a new, state-of-the-art, 300-seat theater that incorporates the remaining historic elements of the original theater, including a double proscenium arch and Solomonic columns.

The plan also includes a garage "with its facades attractively lined with offices" that would face Main Highway and the residential neighborhood to the north.

"The county’s design team spent a year at the outset of the project thoroughly studying the playhouse building, documenting the successive architectural changes that erased the vast majority of the interior features of the original silent movie theater, determining the best strategies for honoring the history of the playhouse and returning the finest dramatic theater to Coconut Grove, creating magical performances for new generations of 21st century audiences," county officials said.