A World of Their Own

Anchored by the rarefied Shops at Merrick Park, get ready for Coral Gables’ new work-live-play district

Words by Drew Limsky / Photos by Rodolfo Benitez

The Shops at Merrick Park has been a central retail lynchpin of the Gables for two decades, providing an outdoor, upscale shopping alternative to Miracle Mile. But it has never had the same sense of community as Coral Gables downtown, or the foot traffic driven by residents, workers, and visitors. Until now.

The neighborhood surrounding the Shops is coming into its own. Known variously as the Village of Merrick Park or the Merrick Park District – and now being re-cast by the city as The Design & Innovation District – it is bound on the north by Bird Road, on the west by Le Jeune Road, on the east by Ponce de Leon Boulevard, and on the south by Ruiz Avenue and the Ponce extension. Once filled with industrial warehouses, auto repair shops, and the city’s storage area for heavy equipment, it is the new home of multiple residential mid-rises, a soon-to-open condo/hotel, world-class adult care centers, and a growing number of dining and retail options. It has become such a hot spot for new development that the New York Post ran a story last month about the “MPD” or Merrick Park District, entitled “Property investors think this industrial Miami nabe is about to blow up.”

The lead photo for the article was a rendering of the Cassia Residences, the latest development to break ground. This condo of turnkey residences, each fully furnished, will clock in with one, two, and three-bedroom units of between 662 and 1,461 square feet each, with prices starting at $700,000. Occupancy is anticipated for 2027.

Cassia – named after the pink blooming tree that can be found in the Gables – is the latest project by Raimundo Onetto, the CEO and principal of Alta Developers, who has brought 4,000 units to the South Florida market. Now, he too is betting on the Merrick Park area. Onetto says one of the keys to success for the project is pricing; another is the interior design work by IDDI and the furnishings by Restoration Hardware. Onetto himself is also an architect, and, inspired by a trip to Milan, he personally designed Cassia’s kitchens, which will be manufactured by Italkraft.

“There are different pockets of Miami,” says Onetto. “Remember, there were no residential buildings in Brickell in 2001, so this part of Coral Gables is kind of the same thing. It’s an evolution in real estate. When The Shops at Merrick Park began to get more traction, I think the whole area started developing in the right direction.”

Onetto’s building follows close on the heels of The Avenue, a Parisian-inspired condo hotel that is nearing completion. Oscar Roger, president and CEO of Roger Development Group, was instrumental in the development of the Merrick Park District. In 2005, he pushed through the zoning changes that allowed mixed-use buildings in the area. Then, in 2008 he built One Village Place at Salzedo and Altera, with 148 condos, and 28 retail spaces. When the developers of a planned 200-key hotel next to the Shops pulled out during the pandemic, Roger saw his opportunity. That was the genesis of the Avenue Hotel & Residences Coral Gables. Roger’s project will not have anywhere near 200 units. The Avenue’s building, designed by the architectural firm of Bermello Ajamil & Partners, will serve as a residential hideaway encompassing just 48 one- and two-bedroom footprints, measuring from 598 to 1,200-square-feet. There will be 18 one-bedroom units and 30 two-bedroom units, plus each living room will contain a sofa bed to welcome extended family. Roger anticipates a soft opening in July or August, with the grand opening to follow a few months later. With prices starting at $730,000, The Avenue is 90 percent sold.

“Let me tell you why I truly believe that we have the right product,” Roger explains. “First of all, we have a boutique building. You spend the week in one of our units and you can bring your kids, and you can bring your in-laws, as opposed to the hotel concept, which is a studio or a bedroom for a businessman or a couple coming for a few days. Our residences are beautifully defined by [interior designer] Adriana Hoyos, and then you get to experience living right next to The Shops at Merrick Park in ‘The City Beautiful, Coral Gables. It doesn’t get any better than that.”

Roger’s appreciation of the family dynamic for The Avenue reflects what is happening in the neighborhood as a whole – a diverse demographic that includes all age groups. On the far end of that spectrum is the advent of Belmont Village Senior Living Coral Gables, with more than 200 resident apartments set within a 10-story, 250,000-square-foot building. Patricia Will, the founder and CEO of Belmont Village, is partnering with Baptist Health South Florida to provide a state-of-the-art facility which resembles a college campus as much as high-end retirement community. In addition to cutting-edge medical capabilities, Belmont has everything from classrooms for music and art to movie screening rooms and a library. Will says the location couldn’t be better, crediting Baptist Health South Florida for finding it. “What a transformation,” she says “Activated retail, which comes naturally to Merrick Park, is something every shopping center aspires to, with an indoor/outdoor experience, outdoor paseos, restaurants, and events. And now this neighborhood has grown up around it. It’s the best of what city planning has to offer. To our residents and family members, Merrick Park is a natural draw. And our employees also take advantage of Merrick Park.”

In the streets around Cassia, The Avenue, and Belmont -which join the Merrick House condominium and the Henry apartment buildings – signs of life include street level coffee shops, wellness spas, exercise studios, a student learning center, a dog product store, a dance studio, and, coming soon, a Bagel Emporium. Jewelers like Tresor and Santayana have set up shop. The neighborhood Bistro Café is already so popular it’s hard to grab a seat on weekend mornings.

William Holly, the CEO of Patton Real Estate, has seen the area transform from its early days, when there was just the Shops at Merrick Park and the iconic 4000 Ponce Building on the corner of Bird Road and Ponce. Patton is the leasing agent for the building, which houses 130,000-square feet of class A office space and 30,000-square-feet of street retail space, in addition to the high-end Collection car dealership (Ferrari, Porsche, Audi, McLaren, Maserati, etc.). Like The Shops, it was built in 2002.

“It’s like every overnight success story – it’s been building for 20 years,” says Holly.”It’s really becoming its own community.Coral Gables was the original live-work-play downtown, centered on Miracle Mile, but now in the Merrick District you have retail, condo, office, shopping, and restaurants. You now have a 24/7 community here.” Holly in particular notes the demographic spread.”You have, on a daily basis, people from toddlers to 20-somethings to octogenarians. It really is from babies to Boomers and beyond.”

Again, the family dynamic that shaped The Avenues approach is also reflected at Cassia. It was originally slated to contain 174 units, but that number is shrinking as four or five families have decided to combine residences. Onetto says one buyer wanted to combine units to create a four-bedroom residence, noting that “there are not a lot of four- or five-bedroom units in the market.” He says the project is especially appealing to the parents of students at the University of Miami, who want to secure homes for their children.

Left: Belmont Village Senior Living Coral Gables, with over 200 resident apartments.
Right: The Collection car dealership for exotic supercar automobiles opened in 2002.

“The inclusion of residential, particularly in the Merrick Park area, is really game-changing,” says Belkys Perez, director of the Economic Development Department for the City of Coral Gables. “If we want the district to be viable day and night, residential is crucial.” Perez notes that the district saw 1.3 million visitors last year, up from 1.1 million visitors in 2019. More importantly, she says that from 2019 to 2024, the number of residents in the district more than doubled, from 1,000 to 2,200. “Throughout the years, and especially after The Shops at Merrick Park was developed, [the area has] taken on a whole new life,” she says. “It’s really nice to see how the area has flourished.”

Now, says Perez, the city wants to promote the area as a nexus for design and tech firms. Already; it is home to a variety of interior designers, as well as furniture and appliance outlets, from Ferguson (bath, kitchen and lighting), to Victoria’s Armoire (furniture), to Miele (appliances).

“A few years ago, because we felt it had so much potential, through our planning review and zoning process, we changed its name to the Design and Innovation District,” says Perez, though that name has yet to get local traction. “For us, that means we still have a beautiful outdoor mall, we still have the shops and designers, but we also have a mix of home design stores, architecture firms, and engineering firms – broadly, the design realm,” she says. “And we also thought this would be a really good area for the innovation aspect as well.”

Raimundo Rodulfo, the city’s director of innovation and technology, says his department is prioritizing the area for high-tech connectivity with other areas of the Gables. “Our team is expanding the city’s fiber optic corridors to connect our Central Business District to the Innovation District and the Underline corridor. This foundation of high-speed communications will allow us to continue growing our Smart City infrastructure,” he says. This will provide hyperconnectivity for city services such as free public Wi-Fi, public safety systems, traffic and environmental sensors, smart mobility and connected transportation services, emergency management and response, and tech incubators. These, he says, will lay the groundwork for “community benefits for quality of life and economic opportunities.”

Says Perez, “We’ve been laying fiber all the way from Alhambra down Ponce de Leon Boulevard, all the way down to the Design and Innovation District, to prepare it for the future growth in that area.” And what can we expect five years from now? “We anticipate seeing a lot more home and design stores,” Perez says. “[But] we’d love to see growth in the number of tech companies. Perhaps a partnership with a tech company is in the cards, with a floor for incubating startups.” But, as with any vision for bold advancement, nothing comes easily: “Finding the right partner – as well as finding the land is a challenge.”

In the meantime, expect further growth in the number of residents, creating a vibrant and versatile community, set against the luxury backdrop of The Shops at Merrick Park, with tenants like David Yurman, Carolina Herrera, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Herman Miller, to name a few. The vision, says The Avenue’s Roger, is of pedestrian-friendly accessibility. “You can take an Uber from the airport, and you don’t have to rent a car,” he says. “You can just walk to a high-end restaurant or go shopping. The only physical amenity we offer is the rooftop pool – all the remaining amenities are surrounding it. And they are already built and done. It’s instant gratification.” Staying true to the concept that The Avenue should feel like it’s part of France’s quintessentially walkable city, Roger declined to create a parking plinth to rest the building upon. “At first, I wanted to put parking inside the building, but the buildings in Paris are not like that – they’re small buildings and they’re more boutique,” he says. Instead, The Avenue will have valet parking, with vehicles located across the street.

The Shops At Merrick Park, With Tenants Like David Yurman, Carolina Herrera, Gucci, And Herman Miller Is Now Seeing The Inclusion Of Residential Buildings In This Eclectic Mix

Roger’s efforts have even caught the attention of a pair of Parisian architects, who sought out the developer to contribute their expertise and ideas to a second Avenue, which is planned for Coral Gables Central Business District. In the meantime, Avenue will enjoy a social place in a special part of the city.