Coconut Grove, also known as the Grove, is the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhood of Miami. The first hotel on the South Florida mainland was built here in 1882 called the Bay View Inn Hotel and is located at present-day Peacock Park. Coconut Grove was annexed into Miami in 1925. In the 1960s, Coconut Grove served as the center of South Florida’s youth countercultural movement. The Village Center, three blocks radiating from the intersection of Main, McFarland, and Grand Avenues, is home to the majority of Coconut Grove retail and restaurant businesses. Like the rest of the neighborhood, this appears to have always been a pretty stable area. Coconut Grove experienced significant growth in the 1970s & 1980s with the construction of many new office and residential towers just east of the Village Center near the waterfront.
Urban areas where coconut could improve upon include better sidewalk and ADA infrastructure. There are few residential streets with curb cuts. This is also need for better public transit in SW Coconut Grove, affordable housing, and more retail amenities outside of the Central Village Center. Residents living in NE and SW Coconut Grove cannot walk to most Coconut Grove amenities.
URBAN STRENGTHS:
* Great racial diversity. Also decent economic and generational diversity too.
* Good access to Dwtn and decent public transit access.
* This is a very safe part of Miami.
* Very well rated schools, esp. private schools. Public school are good too but not a ton of them. Given how large the district is, schools are not always highly walkable to residents.
* Some affordable housing in Coconut Grove.
* Good array of parks type pretty well spread throughout the neighborhood.
* Excellent tree canopy.
* Culturally an excellent array of restaurants, bars, and cafes but all concentrated in the business district at Grand & McFarlane Rd. Decent # of museums and art galleries better spread through Coconut Grove. Also a cineplex and community theater here.
* Good array of retail options but the walkable ones are again concentrated at Grand & McFarlane. These include: many boutiques, clothing stores, a bookstore, several banks, desserts shops, gyms, and drug stores, a local post office, and many churches. the Mercy Hospital complex is also located here. Coconut Grove also hosts several supermarkets, many grocerias, a home depot but often in more auto centric locations.
* Pretty good modern in-fill. Some of it is bland and auto centric.
* Good amount of Office space in central Coconut Grove.
* Great urban form and streetscaping at Grand and McFarlane, decent form in the office area east of here. Grand St going west looses its form gradually with many vacant lots mixed in. 27th St is pretty auto centric.
URBAN WEAKNESSES:
* Density isn’t great.
* ADA and sidewalk infrastructure not the greatest in Coconut Grove. Its great in the biz district but about 40% of residential streets have no sidewalks (esp. SW Coconut Grove), and over half have no curb cuts. Obviously ADA compliant curbs are rare.
* Good access to Dwtn and decent public transit (except in the SW Coconut Grove area). Decent dedicated bike infrastructure.
* Due to a good number of gated communities and many dead end streets Coconut Grive doesn’t have the best connectivity.
* Rentals are rather expensive with studios and 1 beds leasing btwn 1.5K and the low 3Ks, most 2-beds btwn 2K-4K although some product leasing for even more, and 3 beds for 4K+
* For sale product is also expensive but plenty of affordable/moderately priced studios and 1-beds condos selling btwn 200K-500K, wide variety of price with 2-beds with a decent # of condos and SF selling btwn 250K-500K but plenty selling btwn 500K-1.5M, similar situation with 3 & 4 beds but even more expensive.
* Commercial uses are pretty concentrated to central Coconut Grove. Residents living in NE and SW Coconut Grove cannot walk to many retail amenities.
* Some nice historic mansions but most older architecture is blander mid-century design.
* Great pedestrian activity at Grand & McFarlane. Pretty limited outside of here.
Evaluating our Urban Communities [with a focus on America] 