Chris Dekker, who will lease and market Mary Street on behalf of Terra and Mayfair Advisors

MIAMI—Office users searching for space in Miami's Coconut Grove neighborhood will have a new address to call home in mid-2019. The team behind the redevelopment of CocoWalk, one of Miami's most visited lifestyle destinations, plans to meet growing office demand by adding up to 73,000 square feet of class A office space on the property's east side.

Meanwhile, two of the neighborhood's deepest-rooted developers are transforming a 1980s-era parking garage into a contemporary mixed-use building that will meet growing demand for office space and prime retail. Developed by Terra in partnership with Mayfair Real Estate Advisors, the Touzet Studio-designed complex—named “Mary Street”—will include 75,000 square feet of class A office space, reimagined retail storefronts at street-level while retaining a public parking garage. Construction will begin in early 2017.

GlobeSt.com caught up with Chris Dekker, who will lease and market Mary Street on behalf of Terra and Mayfair Advisors, and Tere Blanca, CEO of Blanca Commercial Real Estate, whose firm is handling leasing for CocoWalk's office space, in part three of this exclusive interview. You can still read parts one and two: Coconut Grove Sees a 30-Year-First in Commercial Real Estate Development and Tere Blanca Shines Light on New Trend Among Office Tenants.

GlobeSt.com: Adaptive re-use has been a popular trend in the Grove over the past decade, and now we're seeing Terra convert an old garage into class A offices. What's driving this development strategy?

Dekker: It comes down to surging demand and limited supply. The Coconut Grove community has done a great job keeping the neighborhood walkable and ensuring the commercial and residential mix is balanced through stringent zoning rules.

It's extremely difficult to develop ground-up commercial buildings in the Grove, so developers are looking for opportunities to breathe new life into existing assets that are underperforming. We saw this at Mayfair in the Grove where we converted retail space into offices that are now 100% occupied, and we're seeing it again at Mary Street, where we'll be meeting a clear need for new office and retail space.

GlobeSt.com: To what extent will the newly planned projects be competing with the conventional class A office submarkets in downtown, Brickell and Coral Gables?

Blanca: With two new class A office buildings planned to deliver in the heart of the Grove, tenants and brokers are now going to look to the neighborhood as an emerging submarket with available premium space for the first time in three decades. Currently, the submarket's total vacancy rate for class A space has fallen to 1.0%, with no new office product added in the past 28 years.

Office tenants currently commuting to Miami's urban core, who want to avoid the increasing traffic congestion in Brickell and Downtown, will gravitate towards a more accessible submarket like Coconut Grove. Rents in the Grove will be competitive with other class A properties in our region's key submarkets. But the Grove brings some built-in advantages in walkable streets, direct access to many of Miami's most desirable residential neighborhoods, top-rated schools, and proximity to some of the region's top hotels, restaurants and retail shops.

GlobeSt.com: To what extent will the newly planned projects be competing with the conventional class A office submarkets in downtown, Brickell and Coral Gables?

Instant Insights /

Coconut Grove Office Dynamics Should Turn Heads

Related Stories

Recommended For You