If you feed them, they will come … on Miracle Mile, parking continues to be an issue for retailers, while the Village of Merrick Park finally gets its footing with new restaurants

South Florida CEO, Nov, 2004 by Jaclyn Alcantara

Nino Pernetti, owner of Cafe Abracci, a longtime Coral Gables power spot, claims business is good despite the still recovering economy. "People don't refrain from eating," he says. "Going out for a nice dinner is still the best and cheapest form of entertainment."

Still, the restaurant landscape is changing in Coral Gables. Swanson says the city is attracting more casual restaurants to downtown, such as Houston's and Starbucks, both on the corner of Miracle Mile and Ponce de Leon Boulevard. "So it's not really fast-food, but you're not spending $45 for lunch," Swanson says.

These new lunch venues come at an opportune time. The city's trolleys are allowing neighboring office workers a convenient way to get to lunch destinations in downtown Gables without having to worry about parking.

"Before, taking your car out for lunch was a nightmare," says Xenos Wealth Management founding partner Faith Xenos. She likes to take her 15 employees out for lunch, "but when you try to park four cars, it's a headache." Now she and her employees hop a trolley to a number of dining locations in downtown Coral Gables.

The city is currently considering widening Miracle Mile's sidewalks by seven feet and converting the current on-street parking spaces to parallel parking. This would allow restaurants to provide outdoor dining on sidewalks.

Ana Gonzalez, interim president of the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce, says some of her non-restaurant members on the Mile are worried about the lost parking spaces--94 total according to city manager David L. Brown--and do not see how wider sidewalks would benefit them. Gonzalez tries to reassure them. "It will be better for everyone. If more people come to downtown, you're going to get exposure," she says. She also adds that a new 600-space parking garage, currently under construction in the city's central business district, will more than make up for lost parking spaces.

Aside from Miracle Mile and Merrick Park, retail is springing up in a number of new developments in Coral Gables. The 600-space garage being built by the city has 4,000 square feet of retail and 4,000 square feet of theater space planned for its first floor. Some critics say the 150-seat theatre is too small to be economically viable. The city has not yet found a tenant for that space.

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Mixed-use developments are also adding retail activity to Coral Gables. They include Treister Design and Development Inc.'s project, dubbed The Ponce de Leon, and Hines' office space project at 2525 Ponce de Leon Boulevard. Merrick Park's Tallon says the mall has retail space in the lower part of its residences that will be leased to "convenience services" such as dry cleaners, ice cream shops, kitchen appliance stores, florists and bakeries.

According to Molina and Tallon, both Miracle Mile and Merrick Park are bustling with foreign-owned retailers as well, particularly European. Italian and South American retailers.

One thing is certain, the ever-diversifying mix of national, international, and local tenants, is likely to continue as long as people are drawn to live in Coral Gables.--JA