WGM Weekly: A Pasta Bar, Nude Miami, Perignon, & What's Good Studio Launches at the Moore
+ North Beach is becoming Magical and the latest installment of Where's David Martin?
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WHAT’S GOOD MIAMI: 5.19.26
On My Mind: It’s so Much Better than Listening to Someone Else.
Entrepreneurship is one of the hardest things in the world.
Beach Business
North Beach Is Becoming Magical. The Herald Just Noticed.
The Miami Herald just published the long version of something we told you months ago.
Where’s David Martin? Miami Beach Review Board. Winning.
330-foot waterfront tower on West Avenue. 28 stories. 106 luxury units averaging nearly 3,500 square feet. Two penthouses with rooftop pools.
Miami Office Rents Just Hit “New York Penthouse” Prices
Approaching $200 per square foot and 830 Brickell reportedly pushing as high as $250/SF.
Hospitality Local Insider
The End of an Era: Blue Collar Miami Closes Its Doors
After 14 years of serving as the heartbeat of the MiMo District, Blue Collar has officially served its last meal.
Brickell Gets Its “Erewhon”: Nude Miami Officially Opens
High-end, wellness-focused grocery experience that locals are already calling “Miami’s Erewhon.”
What’s Going to be Good: A Pasta Bar
Sushi Garage’s old footprint is getting A Pasta Bar, a New York SoHo import.
Real Estate
Luxe Developments We Love: The Perigon Miami Beach
5333 Collins Avenue. Seventeen stories. The first new oceanfront tower in this Miami Beach cycle to top out.
ON MY MIND: SO MUCH BETTER THAN LISTENING TO SOMEONE ELSE.
The risk. The hours. The cash flow. The sleepless Sunday nights where the math doesn’t math and you’re staring at the ceiling running through the P&L.
People think entrepreneurs are wired for risk. Wrong. We are wired against sitting in a meeting listening to someone with worse taste make a worse decisions and being asked to execute it. The truth is, even with all the challenges, it is so much better than listening to someone else.
Miami is a hotbed of brand development right now, billions in real estate, hundreds of new hotels and restaurants, an influx of world-class founders, investors, and operators. Combine that with international attention, small-town mechanics, and regular visitation from the largest markets in the world, and you get the perfect low-risk, high-reward proving ground. New York is too crowded to hear you. LA is too spread out to see you. Miami sees everything, and says yes or no fast, and sends the verdict back home with everyone who came down for the weekend.
If your done being told what to do and your ready to build, there is no better place in the world than Miami. Get down here, the proving ground is open.
BEACH BUSINESS
Introducing What’s Good Miami Studio at The Moore in the Design District. Finally a studio that matches Miami’s ambition.
The Moore Miami in partnership with What’s Good and Rebel Audio is launching a super-premium podcast and content studio at The Moore on Wednesday evening. What’s Good Studio at The Moore is the first studio of its kind in South Florida. Super-premium in every dimension. One of the most beautiful and historically relevant locations in the city. Concierge-level hospitality. Built-in distribution opportunities with What’s Good Miami, the cities most trusted editorial authority. Broadcast-grade AI technology powered by Rebel Audio.
The Moore is the physical home of Miami’s creative class. Zaha Hadid’s Elastika in the atrium, Massimo Bottura’s Torno Subito on the ground floor, The Club, The Workplace, and a 13-suite hotel, 100,000 square feet of Design District landmark brought to our great city by the awesome Brady Wood and the Woodhouse group. WGM is the digital home of that same community. The studio is where the two worlds converge.
Walk in, sit down, record, and walk out with an ultra-stylized episode ready to ship and a perfect martini ready to sip.
As we always say, “Content isn’t the king. It’s the kingdom.” Miami is producing the most interesting businesses and creative outputs in America right now, and it deserves a studio experience that matches its ambition. The Moore is the backdrop. What’s Good is the voice. Rebel Audio is the engine. The work starts Wednesday.
What’s Good Studio Launch Event, Wednesday May 20th, 6 PM - 8 PM at the Moore. Live podcast filming with the great Rachel Robinson of @rachelfitness and @barrys bootcamp.
North Beach Is Becoming Magical. The Herald Just Noticed.
The Miami Herald just published the long version of something we told you months ago.
WGM called it last fall. North Beach is the most important neighborhood story in Miami Beach.
Here’s what’s on the ground: 1,300-plus residential units in the pipeline, not including North Bay Village with thousands more. 72 Park is already open at 22 stories. Five more projects under construction. The Byron Carlyle is becoming a cultural arts center. Ocean Terrace is getting ultra luxury beachfront condos and hotel towers. David Martin’s Terra Group is taking the old Deauville site. Russell Galbut’s Crescent Heights is in on several. His quote sets the tone: “We made South Beach a magical place. They’re doing the same in North Beach.”
The Herald hedged. WGM won’t. Yes, traffic is a mess and the police chief took an hour to drive eight blocks. Yes, the 2016 plan said 125 feet and the 2018 rezoning allowed 220. That’s not a betrayal that’s how cities get built. The “character” everyone says they want to protect was built by an earlier generation of developers who bet on a beach nobody else wanted. The real question isn’t whether North Beach changes. It’s whether the people building it have the taste and vision to get it right. Sunshine Coffee’s second location is about to land on 74th and Collins, right next to Sandwicherie. Sushi Bici, Sazon, Burgers and Shakes, and the bandshell are bumping daily and nightly. Altos del Mar has the only beachfront single family homes in Miami Beach, selling already for 40m +.
Don’t sleep on the neighborhood everyone is going to be talking about.
Where’s David Martin? Miami Beach Review Board. Winning.
The Miami Beach Design Review Board unanimously approved 1250 West Avenue on Thursday.
330-foot waterfront tower on West Avenue. 28 stories. 106 luxury units averaging nearly 3,500 square feet. Two penthouses with rooftop pools. ODP Architects designing. Terra developing with RG Development Group and GV Development. The site replaces a 15-story, 238-unit building from 1964, fewer units, bigger units, generational upgrade on one of the best bay front parcels in South Beach.
The give-backs are the part most newsletters will skip. Terra is required to complete its segment of the Baywalk and turn the Bikini Hostel parcel across the street into a city park. More than a dozen West Avenue residents showed up to speak in favor. Terra even committed to washing nearby cars and windows during construction. This is how you get a unanimous vote. Show up early, give before you take, and let the neighborhood see the project before the board does.
WGM’s take: this is David Martin’s signature move. While other developers fight zoning battles in public and lose neighborhoods one Yelp review at a time, Martin builds consensus first and asks for approval second. 1250 West Avenue is one of three major Miami Beach wins on his desk right now. The man is quietly assembling the most ambitious portfolio in the city.
Miami Office Rents Just Hit “New York Penthouse” Prices
Miami’s office market has officially entered its luxury era. According to The Real Deal, the top tier of Miami-Dade office space is now commanding rents once considered unthinkable here, with some buildings reaching or approaching $200 per square foot and 830 Brickell reportedly pushing as high as $250/SF. What used to be a shocking benchmark has become the new flex for trophy office space.
