Jack King wrote an excellent column in Biscayne Times about the Grove and the opportunists that pass through. I had this conversation with Jack in person about a week ago.
Jack was telling me that these opportunists have come to the Grove for years and tried to remake it and make their fortunes in the process and they end up losing in the end. Jack talks about Office buildings, but add all the over-sized condos to that, as well.
But we end up losing in the end, too, because we are stuck with their crap after they go broke.
They are here now to fix the Grove. The Grove does not need to be fixed. Coconut Grove is a small village, not downtown or Brickell, which is what it is becoming.
These developers come in, destroy the village and leave. So many business owners and locals tell me privately how much they despise these developers and how they know they are using us to line their own pockets and spitting us out in the process. When they are done here they 'll move on to the next neighborhood.
Jack says in the article, "First, I didn’t know we needed to be saved. And second, I never knew that an office building could save anyone." It's true, I'm not sure who is benefiting from the office buildings, I did a story not long ago that admits that the office workers are not spending money in the Grove, so other than the developers and landlords of these buildings, who is benefiting? And taking away a garage to make it an office building benefits who? That ended up being the biggest sham and I hear they already have their eyes on the new garage near Regatta Park and it's not even built yet.
The locals have to deal with more traffic and total chaos every day. There is not one street that is not affected, you cannot drive from here to there these days without some sort of detour or traffic delay.
People have asked about the old Johnny Rockets building. Well, they need to close a lane of traffic for some reason in order to complete the renovation. But CocoWalk has a traffic lane blocked across the street on Virginia Street, so the Johnny Rockets building renovation is on hold so that another lane of traffic is not closed. Thank goodness for small favors.
I understand CocoWalk's reasoning with the office building - retail is dead, we live in an Amazon world now and their concept of shopping is not going to work these days. Once someone suggested turning all of CocoWalk into a type of Eately. That might have worked. The office building, who knows? Other than more people and traffic, other than CocoWalk itself, who is it benefiting? The village isn't.
That office building going up near the Playhouse is an ironic thing because if the Playhouse was open, the two restaurants that were in that location would be thriving and an office building would not have been built in their location. And just yesterday we learned about the Playhouse possibly going up for sale. Can you imagine developers getting hands on that property?
And all those over-sized, over-price condos are not being built for the locals. They aren't housing for the poor. Their only purpose is to line the pockets of the developers who will be off and onto their next speculation once they have destroyed our village.
Jack was telling me that these opportunists have come to the Grove for years and tried to remake it and make their fortunes in the process and they end up losing in the end. Jack talks about Office buildings, but add all the over-sized condos to that, as well.
But we end up losing in the end, too, because we are stuck with their crap after they go broke.
They are here now to fix the Grove. The Grove does not need to be fixed. Coconut Grove is a small village, not downtown or Brickell, which is what it is becoming.
These developers come in, destroy the village and leave. So many business owners and locals tell me privately how much they despise these developers and how they know they are using us to line their own pockets and spitting us out in the process. When they are done here they 'll move on to the next neighborhood.
Jack says in the article, "First, I didn’t know we needed to be saved. And second, I never knew that an office building could save anyone." It's true, I'm not sure who is benefiting from the office buildings, I did a story not long ago that admits that the office workers are not spending money in the Grove, so other than the developers and landlords of these buildings, who is benefiting? And taking away a garage to make it an office building benefits who? That ended up being the biggest sham and I hear they already have their eyes on the new garage near Regatta Park and it's not even built yet.
The locals have to deal with more traffic and total chaos every day. There is not one street that is not affected, you cannot drive from here to there these days without some sort of detour or traffic delay.
People have asked about the old Johnny Rockets building. Well, they need to close a lane of traffic for some reason in order to complete the renovation. But CocoWalk has a traffic lane blocked across the street on Virginia Street, so the Johnny Rockets building renovation is on hold so that another lane of traffic is not closed. Thank goodness for small favors.
I understand CocoWalk's reasoning with the office building - retail is dead, we live in an Amazon world now and their concept of shopping is not going to work these days. Once someone suggested turning all of CocoWalk into a type of Eately. That might have worked. The office building, who knows? Other than more people and traffic, other than CocoWalk itself, who is it benefiting? The village isn't.
That office building going up near the Playhouse is an ironic thing because if the Playhouse was open, the two restaurants that were in that location would be thriving and an office building would not have been built in their location. And just yesterday we learned about the Playhouse possibly going up for sale. Can you imagine developers getting hands on that property?
And all those over-sized, over-price condos are not being built for the locals. They aren't housing for the poor. Their only purpose is to line the pockets of the developers who will be off and onto their next speculation once they have destroyed our village.
