Braced-up Grove Playhouse ‘safe,’ county says. Renovation moving ahead
Two weeks after a floor partially collapsed during interior demolition work at the long-closed Coconut Grove Playhouse, Miami-Dade County officials said they are moving ahead “on time” with their plan to revamp the historic theater.
In a virtual town hall meeting on Wednesday evening, Miami-Dade cultural affairs director Marialaura Leslie said the publicly owned playhouse is “safe” after the front of the 1927 building was braced with a series of support beams following what the county has called a construction accident in May. Crews are now bracing the interior and demolition work will restart once city of Miami building officials give the all-clear, she said.
In spite of the mishap, Leslie said, work on the long-delayed project remains “on time and on budget” towards a planned reopening in 2027, the theater’s centennial year. That’s because the bracing, necessary to support the long-vacant building during restoration, was already a part of the work plan.
It was moved up after the partial collapse threatened the three-story building’s structural stability, said Miami-Dade Commissioner Raquel Regalado, who has been the county’s public point person for the plan. A portion of the wood third-story floor fell in after workers mistakenly removed a load-bearing wall, city and county officials say.
The accident alarmed preservationists and Grove residents, some of whom have tried to stop the county plan because it calls for demolition of the theater’s massive old auditorium, to be replaced by a smaller, modern stand-alone theater. But the mishap has not derailed the project timeline, Leslie and Regalado said.
“Sometimes the unexpected happens” in projects of this type, Leslie said.
The demolition contractor, John Bell Construction, remains on the job and will see the job through, the county has said. Renovation and construction work will be bid out separately once final plans are approved by the city’s building department, Leslie said Wednesday.
On Thursday, in response to questions from the Miami Herald, the cultural affairs office said the county has earmarked $58.4 million for restoration of the theater’s front building, construction of the new theater and “associated site improvements.” A new cost estimate is being developed, however, to “align” that budget with escalating costs, the department spokeswoman said in an email. The plan is for work to proceed simultaneously on the new theater and the restoration.
The playhouse, protected as a historic and architectural landmark by the city, is widely regarded as a South Florida “cultural treasure,” as Leslie put it, but has been closed since its nonprofit operator shut down abruptly amid financial issues in 2006.
The county, which developed the renovation plan under an agreement with the state, finally prevailed in a years-long series of court battles with preservationists and the administration of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez last year, and interior demolition and asbestos and debris clean-up began in April after the county obtained city permits for the work.
On Wednesday, Leslie and Regalado also provided some additional details on the renovation timeline, while the city’s parking authority provided a peek at its plans for a new garage on the theater’s surface parking lot.
The removal of asbestos as well as furnishings and other materials left behind by the playhouse operator was completed before the collapse, they said.
The demolition work, which they referred to a phase one of two phases, will take about a year. Next up is removal and storage of historic architectural features, such as the theater’s original proscenium arch, to be reinstalled in the new playhouse.
As that work proceeds, project designer Arquitectonica will complete its plans with an update to comply with recent building-code changes. That will be ready in fall, Leslie said.
New parking garage
Meanwhile, the county will finalize its agreement with the city’s semi-independent parking agency for the planned new four-story garage. Final architectural and engineering plans will take another five to six months, and will require final approval from the city zoning board.
As those final plans are reviewed by the city, the county will issue a solicitation for a general contractor for renovation and new-theater construction, to be hired in early 2026. Construction will take 18-24 months, Leslie said.
A section of the city parking lot at the playhouse has been closed down for work staging. The bulk of the lot, some 115 spaces, remains open, but it will likely be fully shut down early next year, Regalado said.
Officials acknowledged the loss of parking in the heavily used lot could be a burden for Grove visitors and residents, but said the city is running a shuttle to the village downtown from the new Regatta Park garage nearby that has seen 3,000 passengers each month. They added the supply of public parking in CocoWalk and other private locations is plentiful.
The new garage will provide 300 spaces, or about double the capacity of the lot, Miami Parking Authority director Alex Argudin said. It will also include about 33,000 square feet of offices lining its north and south exterior, plus a ground-floor restaurant and retail.
Regalado, Leslie and Argudin stressed that the reconstituted playhouse will not be “a mall,” as some critics have described it. In addition to the commercial space in the garage, the restored historic front building will have small streetfront retail spaces as the playhouse originally did when it opened, and a cafe is planned at a new pedestrian path that will connect Main Highway to Charles Avenue on the side of the new theater.
This story was originally published June 6, 2025 at 5:30 AM.