Miami clears path for Coconut Grove Playhouse revival
Miami-Dade cleared a key zoning hurdle for the Coconut Grove Playhouse, but neighbors still fear the 1926 landmark will return smaller, denser and more commercial.
The Miami City Commission unanimously cleared the way for Miami-Dade County’s Coconut Grove Playhouse plan on July 9, giving the county the zoning relief it needed to push the long-delayed project forward. The vote locked in a design that trades a full restoration for a smaller theater, a parking garage and new commercial space, while West Grove neighbors warned that the project could still overwhelm the area.
The county’s plan calls for preserving the playhouse’s 1926 facade, building a new 310-seat theater behind it and adding a parking garage next door. It also includes 2,600 square feet of retail, 3,800 square feet of food-and-beverage space and 30,600 square feet of office space, turning the property at 3500 Main Highway into a mixed-use complex rather than a straightforward rebuild of the old venue.
The fight over the site has stretched for more than a decade and traces back to Miami-Dade’s 2013 lease resolution with the State of Florida and Florida International University for the Coconut Grove Playhouse. That agreement tied the county and FIU to the property, and the project has since been pulled through lawsuits, appeals and preservation disputes over how much of the old building should survive.
County officials returned to the city this spring asking for five exceptions and four zoning waivers. City planning director and staff recommended approval, and the Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board had already backed a version of the plan in 2018 before that approval expired and the county had to reapply.
In September 2024, Miami-Dade estimated the construction cost at $26 million and put $16.4 million in the county budget for the project. Roughly 80% of the building would be demolished, with the theater shrinking to about 300 seats from 1,150.
The playhouse opened in 1927 and closed in 2006, then was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2018. Its stage once hosted Maureen Stapleton and Liza Minnelli, and county releases in 2026 set the revamped site to reopen in 2027, the playhouse’s 100th anniversary.
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