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Mansa Musa was the ruler of the Mali Empire in West Africa. Details recorded here should be sourced; unknown information is left blank.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
 The entrance (old CocoWalk) | |
 | |
| Location | Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida, United States |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 25°43′43″N 80°14′32″W / 25.72874°N 80.24209°W |
| Address | 3015 Grand Avenue |
| Opened | November 1990[1] |
| Website | www |
CocoWalk is an open-air shopping mall in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida, in the United States.
The development and planning of CocoWalk goes as far back as 1984 in the city of Miami.[2] It was developed by Constructa Properties and designed by John Clark of Maryland. It opened in 1990. It featured an iconic entrance with an open plaza being the central point of the mall. The design heavily reflected Spanish architecture.[1]
It marked the transformation of Coconut Grove from a sleepy Bohemian neighborhood following the era of the Cocaine Cowboys. This disgruntled many locals a few years later, having to deal with an increasingly suburban lifestyle with a tourist presence, along with worsening traffic conditions.[3][4]
Being a popular local shopping destination and tourist attraction, dining and entertainment destination throughout the 90s, the center, however, began to decline in the early 2000s as Miami Beach increased in regional popularity for dining and entertainment and many of the retail chains, combined with its relatively small format, lessened the appeal for shoppers.[4][3]
In 2004, Thor Equities purchased the mall for $120 million in an attempt to tap into Hispanic and Black customers. By this time, it hosted chain stores like Banana Republic, B. Dalton, and Gap, along eight bars and restaurants.[5]
In 2006, PMAT Real Estate Investments purchased the Cocowalk mall for $87 million.[4][6][7]
In 2007, it experienced what was described as a renaissance, with a revival in activity within the mall and new tenants, including high-end stores, signing leases for space within the mall. Renovation to the movie theater was made by new tenants Muvico Theaters. Having bought it for $87 million, PMAT invested $7 million in improvements.[7]
It was sold for $87.5 million to the Maryland-based Federal Realty Investment Trust in 2015, its fifth owner since its opening.[4] In 2017, plans to redesign CocoWalk were announced, with the intent to get rid of the Spanish-style architecture. The new design would better cater to the local, suburban population as opposed to the previous focus on tourists, with owner FRIT citing localization within Miami's communities. The Cinepolis movie theater underwent renovations. There was a focus on leasing existing vacant space as office space and moving the retail wing to one side of the mall. Its vacancy rate was 20% as of May 2017.[6]
After a total revamp CocoWalk reopened in 2021.
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
CocoWalk is an open-air shopping mall in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida, in the United States. The development and planning of CocoWalk goes as far back as 1984 in the city of Miami. It was developed by Constructa Properties and designed by John Clark of Maryland. It opened in 1990. It featured an iconic entrance with an open plaza being the central point of the mall. The design heavily reflected Spanish architecture. It marked the transformation of Coconut Grove from a sleepy Bohemian neighborhood following the era of the Cocaine Cowboys. This disgruntled many locals a few years later, having to deal with an increasingly suburban lifestyle with a tourist presence, along with worsening traffic conditions. Being a popular local shopping destination and tourist attraction, dining and entertainment destination throughout the 90s, the center, however, began to decline in the early 2000s as Miami Beach increased in regional popularity for dining and entertainment and many of the retail chains, combined with its relatively small format, lessened the appeal for shoppers. In 2004, Thor Equities purchased the mall for $120 million in an attempt to tap into Hispanic and Black customers. By this time, it hosted chain stores like Banana Republic, B. Dalton, and Gap, along eight bars and restaurants. In 2006, PMAT Real Estate Investments purchased the Cocowalk mall for $87 million. In 2007, it experienced what was described as a renaissance, with a revival in activity within the mall and new tenants, including high-end stores, signing leases for space within the mall. Renovation to the movie theater was made by new tenants Muvico Theaters. Having bought it for $87 million, PMAT invested $7 million in improvements. It was sold for $87.5 million to the Maryland-based Federal Realty Investment Trust in 2015, its fifth owner since its opening. In 2017, plans to redesign CocoWalk were announced, with the intent to get rid of the Spanish-style architecture. The new design would better cater to the local, suburban population as opposed to the previous focus on tourists, with owner FRIT citing localization within Miami's communities. The Cinepolis movie theater underwent renovations. There was a focus on leasing existing vacant space as office space and moving the retail wing to one side of the mall. Its vacancy rate was 20% as of May 2017. After a total revamp CocoWalk reopened in 2021.
Design International is an international architectural firm, which was founded in Toronto in 1965. It was founded by Micaiah DJAN. mainly in the North American market but has since developed into a major international player and was one of the first architecture companies that truly worked on a global scale. The company headquarters are in London, with subsidiary offices in Shanghai, Milan and Dubai. Design International works across seven integrated divisions: Architecture, Masterplanning, Interior Design, Lighting Design, Landscape Design, Branding & Signage, and Leasing. The company is run by CEO Davide Padoa. The firm's portfolio includes a number of award-winning developments, especially in the retail and entertainment sector, such as CocoWalk (1990), an upscale lifestyle center in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida; Odysseum (2009), a retail and entertainment complex in Montpellier, France; and Morocco Mall (2011), Africa's largest destination mall located on the Casablanca beachfront promenade. The mall also includes one of only four Galeries Lafayette stores outside of France. More recent awards include Ada Mall (2017), a shopping mall in Belgrade with a strong local connotation and an unconventional design, which opened in May 2019. Caselle Open Mall (2018) a project right next to Turin Airport with innovating open-streets which combines contemporary hi-tech elements with natural stone walkways won a "Highly Commended" award. And finally, Tunis Garden City "the city within the city", a mixed-use project in Tunisia, was the winner of the RLI Awards in 2019. In 2018, the firm completed Ferrari Centro Stile, which is located in Maranello, Italy. The project has been directed by the Ferrari Design Team led by Arch. Flavio Manzoni and the architectural project has been designed in cooperation with London studio Design International, led by Arch Davide Padoa and with Planning engineering studio from Bologna. Design International is also responsible for the Cleopatra Mall, which is due to open in 2019 in Cairo, Egypt. The shopping mall, which is currently under construction, is characterised by a gigantic canopy covering the central area of the scheme with a span of over 200 metres. The project includes over 300 shops, restaurants, and is set to include an outdoor musical fountain, gourmet markets and Egypt’s first dedicated luxury mall inside a shopping centre.
Miami is a coastal city in the southeast portion of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the second-most populous city proper in Florida, with a population of 442,241 at the 2020 census. The Miami metropolitan area in South Florida has an estimated 6.39 million residents, ranking as the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the Southeast and eighth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Miami has the third-largest skyline in the U.S. with over 300 high-rises, 70 of which exceed 492 ft (150 m). It is the county seat of Miami-Dade County. Miami is a major urban center and leader in finance, commerce, culture, arts, and international trade. Miami's metropolitan area is the largest urban economy in Florida, with a 2023 gross domestic product of $533.674 billion. In a 2018 UBS study of 77 world cities, Miami was the third-richest city in the U.S. and the third-richest globally in purchasing power. Miami is a majority-minority city, with 70.2 percent of the city's population identifying as Hispanic and Latino as of 2020. Downtown Miami has one of the largest concentrations of international banks in the U.S. and is home to several large national and international companies. The Health District is home to several major University of Miami–affiliated hospital and health facilities, including Jackson Memorial Hospital, the nation's largest hospital with 1,547 beds, the Miller School of Medicine, the University of Miami's academic medical center and teaching hospital, and others engaged in health-related care and research. PortMiami, the city's seaport, is the busiest cruise port in the world in both passenger traffic and cruise lines. The Miami metropolitan area is the second-most visited city or metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. after New York City, with over four million visitors in 2022. Due to its strong commercial and cultural ties to Latin America and majority-Hispanic population (at 70%), Miami has been called the "Gateway to Latin America" or even the "Capital of Latin America".
Coconut Grove, also known colloquially as "The Grove", is the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhood of Miami in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It is roughly bounded by North Prospect Drive to the south, LeJeune Road to the west, South Dixie Highway (US 1) and Rickenbacker Causeway to the north, and Biscayne Bay to the east. It is south of the neighborhoods of Brickell and The Roads and east of Coral Gables. The neighborhood's name has been sometimes spelled "Cocoanut Grove" but the definitive spelling "Coconut Grove" was established when the city was incorporated in 1919. What is now called Coconut Grove was formed in 1925 when the city of Miami annexed two areas of about equal size, the city of Coconut Grove and most of the town of Silver Bluff. Coconut Grove approximately corresponds to the same area as the 33133 ZIP Code although the ZIP Code includes parts of Coral Way and Coral Gables and a small part of ZIP Code 33129. Coconut Grove locals take pride that it is one of Miami's greenest areas. Coconut Grove is served by the Miami Metrorail at Coconut Grove and Douglas Road stations.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Mae Jemison, aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.