Opening a restaurant in Miami looks simple from the outside. Permits, grease traps, landlords, seasonality, and the city’s appetite for spectacle tell a different story.

Downtown Miami is growing vertically at record speed, yet many storefronts remain empty. The issue is not retail demand, but a deeper ground floor economic misalignment shaping the urban core.

Murals on rooftops. Restaurants that became legends. A city center with space for bold ideas and lasting impact. Downtown Miami isn’t a blank slate, it’s a rare one. For those building with soul, the door’s still open.

Southeast Financial Center opened in 1984 as the headquarters of Southeast Bank and the tallest building in Florida. The bank occupied approximately half of the complex.

Perricone's has never really been just a restaurant. It was the restaurant, the market, the deli, and the garden. The sale of the property for $16.5 million says as much about Brickell's evolution as it does about one of its best known institutions.

Le Chick is finally opening on NW 24th Street, more than a year and a half after its lease was announced. The 4,700 square foot restaurant brings dining, a full bar and late night activity to this part of Wynwood.

The Taco Stand brings its Baja style taqueria from San Diego to Wynwood, opening near Coyo Taco and adding another restaurant to the streets growing around NW Second Avenue.

It is encouraging to see a new concept open here while so much attention is directed toward Brickell City Centre and the restaurants around it. This part of Brickell has an established residential and office clientele, along with businesses that were serving the neighborhood well before the current wave of openings. Figata enters a location people already know, at a time when they have considerably more choice.

Joe & The Juice is coming to 2315 NW Second Avenue, entering a neighborhood where local businesses first made juice popular and helped give the street its identity. Now the international names are paying attention.

Previous Purchase price : $440,000  in 1998