Is Trader Joe’s coming to Coral Gables? No one’s saying much, but it sure seems so
Trader Joe’s, the grocer with a quirky vibe and legions of devotees, is planning to open a new store in Coral Gables.
City officials have confirmed that the German-owned chain has applied for a permit to build a store at the Gables Station mixed-use development now under construction on U.S. 1, five miles north of the perennially packed Trader Joe’s store in Pinecrest.
Brent Reynolds, a principal in the Gables Station development, declined to comment. The usually tight-lipped, privately held Trader Joe’s confirmed on Wednesday that it’s pursuing a Gables location, but did not elaborate.
“We are very interested in bringing a Trader Joe¹s store to Coral Gables and are taking the necessary steps to make that happen,” said Kenya Friend-Daniel, the company’s public relations director, in an emailed response to queries from the Miami Herald. “There is no additional information to confirm at this time.”
Rumors of a new TJ’s in the affluent Gables have been swirling for weeks. Last week, Gables zoning administrator Charles Wu said by email that city officials are reviewing an application filed Aug. 3 for a building permit for the new store. He did not provide further details.
Coral Gables vice-mayor Vince Lago said Reynolds has told him he has been negotiating a lease with Trader Joe’s for Gables Station, which will be renamed Life Time Living Luxury Residences under a newly announced deal with a Minnesota health and wellness company. But Lago said he doesn’t know whether the lease has been finalized.
The permit application suggests it has been. But don’t expect an opening anytime soon. Permitting and build-out can take a year or more.
Gables Station would provide a prominent location and a built-in, high-density customer base for Trader Joe’s. The multi-tower development, which will include 495 apartments, stretches along the Metrorail tracks and the west flank of U.S. 1 from LeJeune Road north to the intersection of the highway and Ponce de Leon Boulevard.
Hundreds of other new or recently built apartments are a short walk away in Coral Gables’ rezoned and rapidly redeveloping old industrial district. And about 1,500 more are under construction steps away from Gables Station, across the city of Miami line, at the Douglas Road Metrorail station, where a developer is erecting a high-rise mini-city called The Link at Douglas.
The Mediterranean-style Gables Station also includes 105,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space divided among three buildings, more than enough to house a Trader Joe’s. The grocer’s compact stores typically run from around 10,000 square feet to 15,000 square feet.
The Gables store would be only the third Trader Joe’s in Miami-Dade County, after the Pinecrest original, which opened in 2013, and a South Beach store that opened in August of 2019. The chain also has four stores in Broward County, including the latest in Coral Springs, which opened on Friday.
The growing Trader Joe’s chain, based in California, boasts over 500 stores across the United States. It has developed a devoted following, often described as cult-like, for its friendly, Hawaiian-shirt-clad employees and its house-branded, high-quality products, which sell for less than the equivalent at competing supermarket chains -- though they’re often made by the same producers under highly confidential deals.
The compact TJ’s stores carry only about a tenth of what supermarket competitors do, but the chain is so popular that its profitability per square foot is twice the industry average. CNBC earlier this year reported that real estate research firm Ascential put the company’s net sales in 2019 at an estimated $13.7 billion.
At the Gables location, Trader Joe’s closest competitors would include two stores owned by the high-end, local independent Milam’s chain, a Whole Foods and two older Publix supermarkets.
Reynolds, the Gables Station principal, has stressed in the past that one of project’s chief selling points is its easy access to mass transit at the Douglas Road Metrorail station, where the Gables city trolley circulator also has a stop, and its location in an increasingly pedestrian-friendly neighborhood around the Shops at Merrick Park.
The project also sits along the planned Underline, the ongoing conversion of the bare pathway under the elevated rails into a 10-mile walking and cycling path and linear park. Under a deal with the city of Coral Gables, Gables Station will spend $3 million to build a quarter-mile portion of the Underline and a public dog park next to the project. They city has also earmarked sufficient funding to build the rest of the two-and-a-half-mile Underline piece that runs through the Gables.
That means that, unlike at most of its other South Florida locations, Trader Joe’s customers in the Gables could easily walk, cycle or take mass transit to the store.
If they choose to drive, though, the Gables store will also boast something else other TJ’s stores, including the Pinecrest location, notoriously lack — lots of parking. Gables station incorporates a massive 1,000 spots of enclosed parking.
This story has been updated to include comments and confirmation from Trader Joe’s.
This story was originally published November 2, 2020 at 7:58 AM.