News of Importance from Coral Gables
Streetwise Talk of the Town 

News of Importance

JP Faber

Grants for Small Businesses, A New Police and Fire HQ, A New Jackson Health Center and More

The city has completed its distribution of grants to local small businesses to help them pay rent. More than 60 grants of $15,000 each were distributed to places such as Fritz & Franz, Barista Café, Clutch Burger, Blue Serenity Boutique, and Gables Cigar Shop. Pictured above: Noel Macchi (center), owner of Blue Serenity Boutique, receives a grant of $15,000. With her are Finance Department Director Diana Gomez and Economic Development Department Director Julian Perez.

The city’s new $55 million Public Safety Building is finally finished. The five-story, 190,000-square foot building (including parking) at Salzedo and Minorca, will now house the city’s Police, Fire, Emergency Management, IT and Communications departments. 

Jackson Health System announced that it would build an urgent care facility in Coral Gables, breaking ground later this year. The 10,170-foot one-story building will rise on the corner of Galiano Street and SW 8th Street. The building will house an emergency department as well as space for primary care.

Parents at Carver Elementary School are suing the City of Coral Gables in an effort to stop the construction of a Wawa gas station and convenience store being built across the street from the entrance to the school. The Gables Accountability Project, composed of parents and residents, has filed a civil suit alleging that the city violated its own laws by fast-tracking the project, which they say compromises the health and safety of the students.

Gables-based Professional Bank, which had previously lent money to Donald Trump and his family, announced that it would drop the former president in the wake of the storming of the Capitol building. In 2018, the Trump Organization borrowed $11.2 mil-lion from Professional to purchase a home in Palm Beach. Trump also had a money market account with the bank.

In order to help protect the U.S. Capitol during the presidential inauguration, the Coral Gables Police Department provided 27 officers. “We’ve all watched on the edge of our seat what happened in D.C.,” said Coral Gables Police Chief Ed Hudak. “These men and women are committed to making sure that that does not happen again.”