Development plan would demolish iconic Norman Brothers grocery. Neighbors are protesting

The iconic Norman Brothers Produce market could be demolished to make way for an assisted-living facility, a plan that some homeowners from the nearby neighborhood are fighting as too large for the property.

Owners of the business, which has been selling local produce at its Southwest 87th Avenue location near Dadeland for more than 50 years, are ready to sell. They have a deal for developer Michael Garcia-Carrillo to replace the grocery store with a 115-bed elder-care facility, along with an office building with a focus on medical care.

There’s a possibility of a scaled-down Norman Brothers boutique leasing space on the ground floor of the new office building, but there are no plans to recreate the kind of upscale grocer with aisles of produce and a selection of high-end meats that made the place a shopping favorite in the Kendall area.

“There’s no other facility we’re going to find like this,” said general manager Suann Suggs, a longtime employee who became a partner in the family-owned business. While many of the partners spent decades working at Norman Brothers under primary owner David Nelson, Suggs said there aren’t enough younger relatives interested in taking over the business.

“The next generation has other plans,” she said.

Miami-Dade County commissioners are scheduled to vote Wednesday on the zoning changes requested by Garcia-Carillo’s GC3 Development. The company won a key vote in 2019 when commissioners approved a change in the county’s comprehensive development master plan for the Norman Brothers site, clearing the way for more commercial options on a five-acre property that sits next to a residential neighborhood and across the street from medical offices.

Residents of the Glenvar Heights neighborhood are fighting the plan, calling the proposed assisted-living facility too tall and the medical campus too large for the already busy area around 87th Avenue. A group of about 20 people picketed on the sidewalk outside Norman Brothers on Monday morning, holding signs declaring “Our Unique Neighborhood Is At Risk.”

“This is the community that made Norman Brothers Norman Brothers,” said Mary Faraldo, the organizer of the rush-hour protest. “Our zoning cannot be thrown under the bus.”

Faraldo said her group is pushing for a smaller assisted-living building than the three-story facility that’s proposed, and other changes to reduce traffic coming into the new development. They’re objecting to lighting around the proposed facility that they say will shine into nearby homes.

“All of their neighbors — everything they’ve worked for their entire life — is suddenly lost,” Faraldo said.

Late Monday, GC3 released a list of concessions to try and blunt the protest, including a two-story limit on the planned buildings and county review of a lighting plan to assure it doesn’t shine into nearby homes.

Norman Brothers sits about a block away from a strip mall with a Winn-Dixie, and there are multi-story office buildings nearby. Melissa Tapanes Llahues, a lawyer for GC3 Development, said the proposed project fits in with the neighborhood and that the loss of a popular grocery store is increasing anxiety over the plans.

“Norman Brothers has been there for decades,” said Tapanes, a partner at Bercow Radell Fernandez Larkin & Tapanes. “So it’s a change. Change is cause for concern.”

Miami-Dade’s zoning staff recommended commissioners approve the project, predicting minor increases in traffic that wouldn’t be noticeable on already busy 87th Avenue. Zoning director Nathan Kogon wrote in a December report that the project “would be compatible with surrounding area.”

With the Norman Brothers owners ready to sell, Tapanes noted the current zoning rules could let a buyer transform the site into a grocer bound to get more traffic than what GC3 is proposing.

“We all love Norman Brothers,” she said. “But it could be Trader Joe’s or Publix or Walmart tomorrow.”

The business started as a produce stand in the 1960s, when the Norman family set up a location to sell their fruits and vegetables.

Ownership shifted to the Nelson family, and with it a major expansion into prepared foods.

That includes a milkshake and smoothie counter, weekend barbecue specials, and baked goods and meals to go. Their best seller: cranberry tuna salad. Customers buy 120 pounds of it on a typical day, Suggs said.

What will happen to Norman Brothers Produce?

With mainstream grocers upgrading their produce offerings and cooking habits changing, Norman Brothers saw sales shift to the prepared food, Suggs said. Those recipes would be the main draw for a scaled-down Norman Brothers that could go in leased space in the new property.

That concept was added by GC3 in early talks with neighbors alarmed at losing their favorite grocery store, Tapanes said. But nothing is definite, and Suggs said the current owners can’t be sure what future years will bring.

“I’m not going to stand here and promise that Norman Brothers will be in that location,” Suggs said. “Think of all the time it takes to build that project.”

Suggs noted the timeline means regular Norman Brothers customers shouldn’t expect to see the grocer go away anytime soon. That’s good news for the plan’s fiercest opponents, who also happen to be regulars.

“I get their famous tuna salad,” Faraldo said. “It’s the best.”

This story was originally published May 17, 2021 at 8:29 PM.