Xavier Suarez: The long saga of restoring the Coconut Grove Playhouse| Opinion

Before my election to the Miami-Dade County Commission in 2011, I had participated in various demonstrations geared at accelerating the restoration of the Coconut Grove Playhouse. At one of them, organized by Coconut Grove activist Nathan Kurland, we welcomed the appearance and support of hometown Hollywood actor Andy Garcia.

As the commissioner with jurisdiction over Coconut Grove, I immediately began discussions with then-Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who was elected in the same special election as I.

The thrust of the county mayor’s approach was initially similar to mine: We both wanted to regain control from the private operators, who had been struggling financially, leaving the theater closed and in disrepair.

That was accomplished with the help of then-Lieutenant Governor Carlos Lopez-Cantera, who crafted and passed legislation retroactively dispossessing the private non-profit and giving control of the Playhouse to a combination of public entities. A three-way lease agreement was entered into, involving the state, county and Florida International University.

Under that agreement, the county was supposed to deliver a completed playhouse by October of 2023.

We had $20 million to work with, funds coming from the 2004 General Obligation Bond (“Building Better Communities”). However, the architects chosen for the redesign felt that this was not enough for a total restoration of a theater as large as the 1,100-seat historic one.

At that point, I started working with private sector donors and with the City of Miami (through its then-Mayor Tomas Regalado) to fill in the gap of what was estimated as another $25 million needed to restore the Playhouse.

When I couldn’t convince Mayor Gimenez to accept a pledge of substantial funds from one private group (headed by former Adrienne Arsht Center chairman, Mike Eidson), I convened two Sunshine Meetings with then County Commission Chairman Esteban Bovo Jr.

The thrust of my proposal was to accept the idea of a moderate-sized theater, take advantage of the city of Miami’s offer of substantial funding, and get started with a 500-seat theater that would maintain the facade and include amenities such as a plaza as well as a black-box theater for educational use.

The city of Miami chipped in with $10 million pledged by Mayor Regalado. This funding formula was later enhanced with the participation of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who restated the city’s pledge of $10 million (from its own general obligation funds, approved in 2017). Mayor Suarez added another $5 million from the Coconut Grove Business Improvement District.

We were getting close to the needed funds. The lieutenant governor, the district county commissioner, and the newly elected mayor of Miami endorsed a larger Playhouse that was more in line with the original, historical one.

Mayor Gimenez initially supported the compromise but soon thereafter proposed a mixed-use facility that included a tiny 250-seat theater, a handful of retail shops and a huge parking building.

That idea, which the county is still advancing, was objectionable to several preservationists, Mayor Suarez and the Historic and Environmental Preservation Board, as detailed in a recent OpEd by Mike Rosenberg.

So it’s all in the courts now, which is a shame because the judiciary is not meant to or equipped to solve those kinds of artistic-architectural-funding battles.

In the meantime, the October 2023 deadline imposed by the State of Florida to complete the project has passed - with nothing even started.

It would behoove the various parties, the state, the county and FIU to suspend litigation and sit down to negotiate a solution.

That solution should be along the lines previously agreed to that preserves much of the historic playhouse structure, eliminates the shops and finds the private component necessary, through naming rights, to fund the mid-size facility that fully respects the 1927 design by famed architect Richard Kiehnel.

Xavier Suarez is a former mayor of Miami and a former Miami-Dade Commissioner.