Ziggurat Coconut Grove Completes Demolition as Project Moves Toward Construction

Demolition is finished at 3101 Grand Avenue. The Allen Morris Company announced on July 30, 2026 that it has cleared the Coconut Grove block where Ziggurat will be built, opening the way for site work and, after that, vertical construction.

For a buyer holding a contract — or considering one — this is the kind of update that deserves a precise reading rather than an enthusiastic one. Demolition completion is real, physical, verifiable progress. It is also one of the earliest stages of construction, and it proves considerably less than the word "construction" in a headline suggests.

Here is what has demonstrably happened, what the developer says will happen, and what a buyer should do with the difference.

Key Takeaways

• Completed: demolition of the existing storefronts on the block, including the former Coconut Grove Laundry & Cleaners. The site is cleared.
• Not started: site work, foundations and vertical construction. Nothing has risen yet.
• The February 2026 groundbreaking was ceremonial. Demolition did not begin until roughly mid-April 2026 and took about three and a half months.
• Construction financing is in place — a $138.5 million loan from BDT & MSD Partners and BHI closed in December 2025. That is among the more meaningful risk-reducing events in a pre-construction project's life.
• Completion is anticipated in early 2028 per the developer's current statements. Allen Morris Company's own corporate project page still lists Q4 2027 and a Q3 2025 construction start.
• The developer's published materials do not agree with each other on residence count or retail square footage. Confirm current figures against the condominium documents, not marketing collateral.

The record

What has actually happened at 3101 Grand Avenue

• Mar 2025Residential sales and office/retail leasing launchedCompleted
• Dec 2025$138.5M construction loan closed — BDT & MSD Partners and BHICompleted
• Dec 2025City Commission approval of the project reportedCompleted
• Jan 2026Sales and leasing gallery opened on Fuller StreetCompleted
• Feb 2026Groundbreaking ceremony heldCompleted
• Apr 2026Demolition of the existing storefronts beganCompleted
• Jun 2026City approved final Kirk Munroe Park and Fuller Street designsCompleted
• Jul 2026Demolition complete; site clearedCompleted
• NextSite work, foundations, vertical constructionNot started
• Early 2028Completion anticipated by the developerProjected

Compiled by TheBuyerRebate.com from Allen Morris Company announcements reported by PROFILEmiami (March 2025, December 2025, January 2026, February 2026, July 2026) and from City of Miami Commission coverage by Coconut Grove Spotlight and Miami Today. Dates for the demolition start are as reported locally in April 2026.

What changed at the site

The July 30 announcement confirms a specific, narrow thing: the structures that previously occupied the block are gone and the land is cleared. Allen Morris describes this as paving the way for the start of site work and vertical construction.

The block had been occupied by storefronts including the Coconut Grove Laundry & Cleaners, a business the Espinosa family had operated since 1961. The Espinosa family is a partner in the development, and the laundry is expected to return to the completed project — one of the reasons the block was assembled rather than acquired outright.

The sequence here is worth noting because it runs against the usual assumption. Allen Morris held a groundbreaking ceremony in February 2026. Coconut Grove Spotlight reported in late April that demolition of the storefronts had begun "last week." In other words, the ceremonial groundbreaking preceded the first physical demolition by roughly two months, and the demolition itself then ran about three and a half months.

None of that is unusual or improper. Groundbreakings are marketing events scheduled around financing closes and sales milestones, not construction schedules. But it illustrates why a buyer tracking a project's real progress should watch the site and the permit record rather than the press calendar.

Where Ziggurat stands now

Ziggurat is a mixed-use development on roughly 1.7 acres at 3101 Grand Avenue, at the crossroads of Grand Avenue, Matilda Street and Florida Avenue in the historic heart of Coconut Grove. It is developed by The Allen Morris Company in partnership with the Espinosa family, designed by Oppenheim Architecture, with interiors by Collarte Interiors and landscape design by Andres Arcila of Naturalficial. Residential sales are handled exclusively by ONE Sotheby's International Realty; Cushman & Wakefield appears on the project's own site as an office and retail leasing partner.

The program pairs a boutique office building with a small residential building above ground-floor retail, arranged around a landscaped central courtyard reached through open-air paseos. The developer has said the office building's rooftop will hold a restaurant and lounge by a local Michelin-starred chef, with views toward Biscayne Bay. The chef has not been publicly named.

Loan from BDT & MSD Partners and BHI, as announced December 2025. Completion timing is the developer's current projection, not a contractual commitment.

The published numbers do not all agree

This is the part of the current picture that most deserves a buyer's attention, and it is not a criticism of the developer so much as a normal feature of a project that has evolved over several years of design and approvals. As of July 31, 2026, three sets of official or developer-issued figures are simultaneously in public circulation, and they differ.

Figures as published and accessible on July 31, 2026. The Allen Morris corporate project page carries a modified date of July 2025 and also lists a third-quarter 2025 construction start, which did not occur as stated.

A few observations. The residence count moved from 19 to 18 between the project website and the announcements issued at groundbreaking in February 2026 and again on July 30. Both press announcements use the lower figure, so the change is not a one-off typo — but the consumer-facing project site still shows 19. The likeliest benign explanation is a combination of two units into one during design, which is common in boutique buildings; the developer has not stated a reason, and we are not going to invent one.

The retail figure is worth a second look for a different reason. The Allen Morris corporate page lists residential square footage of 45,000 and retail square footage of 40,000. The July 30 announcement attributes approximately 45,000 square feet to ground-floor retail. It is possible the retail component grew; it is also possible two similar numbers have been transposed somewhere along the way. Either way, retail square footage is not currently a settled fact.

Pricing has moved as well. That is normal in a project that has been selling for more than a year, but it is worth having in view. At the March 2025 sales launch, residences were reported as starting at $2.3 million. By the February 2026 groundbreaking the reported starting price was $3.5 million, and the July 30 announcement describes a range of $3.5 million to $15 million across homes of roughly 1,254 to more than 5,000 square feet. We do not publish project pricing as current — it changes, and only the developer's price sheet governs — but the direction of travel over sixteen months belongs in a buyer's assessment.

One more figure deserves correcting. Both the February and July announcements describe the neighboring Kirk Munroe Park as slated for an $8 million renovation. The public record is more specific: under a development agreement approved by the Miami City Commission, the combined Kirk Munroe Park and Fuller Street improvements carry a $5 million budget — $3 million from the city and $2 million from Allen Morris, with the developer managing construction and covering any overruns. The commission approved final designs on June 25, 2026. The park work is a genuine and well-documented commitment; the number attached to it in project marketing is higher than the one in the city's agreement.

Why demolition completion matters to buyers — and what it doesn't prove

Take the positive side first, because it is real.

A cleared site means capital is being deployed on the ground rather than on renderings. Demolition costs money, requires permits, and is difficult to reverse. Combined with a closed construction loan and a City Commission approval already on the record, Ziggurat has passed several of the checkpoints where South Florida pre-construction projects most often stall or quietly disappear. Buyers who have watched projects sit at "coming soon" for years have good reason to read a cleared site as meaningful.

It is also a decent proxy for developer seriousness. Allen Morris has been building in Florida since 1958 and, in the case of the park and street improvements, has already committed $2 million of its own money to work it does not own.

Now the limits, which matter just as much.

• Demolition is subtraction, not construction. A cleared lot is the starting line. Foundations, structure, envelope, finishes and inspections all lie ahead, and the majority of a project's cost and schedule sits in those stages.
• Delivery risk has not been eliminated. Construction cost escalation, contractor availability, hurricane season disruption, permit timing and material lead times all still apply between now and 2028.
• Anticipated completion is a projection. The developer's own corporate page still shows Q4 2027, roughly a quarter earlier than its current guidance. Schedules move, which is normal — and is exactly why the delivery provisions in your purchase agreement matter more than the date in a press release.
• "Nearly sold out" is a characterization, not a verified figure. At groundbreaking in February the project was described as 65% sold; five months later the description is "nearly sold-out." Neither figure has been independently verified, and on a building of 18 or 19 homes the difference between the two is a handful of units.

What buyers should watch next

Between now and delivery, a handful of observable milestones will tell you far more than any marketing update.

Permits and the first foundation activity

Watch for the master building permit and the start of foundation work — pile driving, excavation, or a mat pour, depending on the structural approach. This is the transition from clearing a site to building on it, and it is publicly observable both on the block and in the City of Miami permit record.

Vertical concrete

The first structural floor above grade is the milestone that changes a project's risk profile most visibly. On a low-rise building of three and five stories, the vertical phase should move relatively quickly once it starts — which also means a long gap between site clearing and first concrete would be worth asking about.

Updated delivery guidance, in writing

Ask the sales team directly, in writing, whether early 2028 remains current and what the contract's outside delivery date is. Those are two different things, and the second is the one that carries legal weight.

Condominium document amendments

Unit count, unit mix and square footages live in the recorded condominium documents. If the count really has moved from 19 to 18, that change flows through the documents. Amendments are also where changes to common elements, parking allocation and budgets appear.

The Kirk Munroe Park and Fuller Street work

Allen Morris has said it expects to break ground on the park and street improvements in summer 2027. That work is a meaningful part of the value proposition for residences that will look directly onto the park, and it runs on its own schedule, contingent on final approval by the Coconut Grove Business Improvement District.

Ziggurat within the Coconut Grove market

What makes Ziggurat distinctive is less its finishes than its scale and its type. A residential building of 18 or 19 homes is not a condominium tower; it is closer in size to a small apartment building, and it sits inside a mixed-use block rather than standing alone. Buyers here are purchasing into a project where offices, retail, a courtyard and a rooftop restaurant are integral to the product rather than amenities bolted onto a residential base.

That cuts both ways. Very low density means genuine scarcity and privacy, and there is little comparable new-construction inventory in the Grove's historic core. It also means the residential component depends on a commercial project succeeding around it — office leasing, retail tenanting and the restaurant all shape what living there will actually feel like. Those are legitimate diligence questions, not objections.

Construction progress matters more here than it might elsewhere for a practical reason: with so few units, a buyer comparing Ziggurat against other Coconut Grove opportunities has almost no resale history to work from and limited ability to wait for a better unit to come available. Timing and representation carry more weight when the inventory is this thin. Buyers weighing the Grove more broadly may also want to look at our Coconut Grove buyer guide and the wider Miami pre-construction landscape.

The Buyer Rebate perspective

Our role on a project like this is narrow and practical. We represent the buyer independently, review the purchase agreement and deposit schedule, ask the developer's team the questions above in writing, and monitor construction progress against what was represented at contract. Eligible buyers receive up to 50% of our buyer-agent commission back at closing.

Our buyer representative team approaches transaction risk with a legal-informed perspective, and title and closing coordination may be available through an affiliated title resource where appropriate. Contract-specific legal questions should be directed to qualified Florida counsel.

One timing note specific to new construction: registration order matters. Where a project's sales gallery registers a buyer first, arranging independent representation afterward becomes materially harder, and rebate eligibility can be affected. That sequence is worth understanding before you visit — the details are on our Ziggurat Coconut Grove project guide, along with a rebate calculator set to the project's price points. For pre-construction generally, see our pre-construction buyer rebate overview.

Sources & Methodology

1. The Allen Morris Company announcement of completed demolition at Ziggurat Coconut Grove, July 30, 2026, as reported by PROFILEmiami — including the $138.5 million construction loan, early 2028 anticipated completion, building program, residence sizes and pricing range.
2. The Allen Morris Company groundbreaking announcement, February 23, 2026, as reported by PROFILEmiami — including the 65%-sold figure stated at that time.
3. The Allen Morris Company construction loan announcement, December 2, 2025, as reported by PROFILEmiami — BDT & MSD Partners and BHI.
4. Allen Morris Company corporate project page for Ziggurat (allenmorris.com), as published and accessible July 31, 2026; page carries a July 2025 modified date.
5. Project website zigguratcoconutgrove.com, home and residences pages, as accessible July 31, 2026.
6. Coconut Grove Spotlight, April 20, 2026 (demolition start; $5 million park and street budget) and June 25, 2026 (City Commission approval of final Kirk Munroe Park and Fuller Street designs; summer 2027 expected start).
7. Miami Today, January 28, 2026 — City Commission funding allocation of $3 million from the city and $2 million from Allen Morris, and project description at that date.

Methodology note. Facts above are attributed third-party reporting and developer statements, not proprietary TheBuyerRebate.com research. We have separated what has demonstrably occurred from what the developer says will occur and from what remains projected. Where developer-published figures conflict, we have shown the conflict rather than selecting one and presenting it as settled. Pricing, unit count, availability and delivery dates are subject to change and are governed by the recorded condominium documents and the purchase agreement, not by marketing materials or news coverage. Sales-status descriptions such as "65% sold" and "nearly sold-out" are developer characterizations that we have not independently verified.

Questions buyers are asking

Does completed demolition mean Ziggurat Coconut Grove is guaranteed to be delivered?

No. Demolition clears a site; it does not build a building. What it establishes is that the developer is spending real money on the property and has moved past the paper stage. Financing, permitting, construction cost, labor, weather and market conditions all still sit between a cleared site and a certificate of occupancy. Treat completed demolition as evidence of progress, not as a delivery guarantee.

How many residences will Ziggurat Coconut Grove have?

The developer's public materials do not currently agree. The project website at zigguratcoconutgrove.com described 19 homes as of July 31, 2026, while the announcements issued at the February 2026 groundbreaking and again on July 30, 2026 both described 18 residences. Unit count is governed by the recorded condominium documents, not by marketing collateral, so a buyer should confirm the current figure in writing before contracting.

When is Ziggurat Coconut Grove expected to be completed?

The developer's current public statements, including the July 30, 2026 announcement, anticipate completion in early 2028. The Allen Morris Company's own corporate project page still lists a fourth-quarter 2027 completion and a third-quarter 2025 construction start, neither of which reflects what has actually happened. Delivery dates in pre-construction are projections, and the contract, not a press release, controls what a buyer is entitled to.

Can I still receive a buyer rebate at Ziggurat if the project is nearly sold out?

Rebate eligibility depends on representation being in place before you register with the developer's sales team, not on how much inventory remains. Eligible buyers receive up to 50% of our buyer-agent commission back at closing, subject to transaction terms, lender/closing requirements, broker/project cooperation where applicable, and buyer eligibility. If you have already contacted the sales gallery on your own, tell us exactly what happened and we will assess it honestly.

Related Intelligence

• Ziggurat Coconut Grove — Buyer Rebate & Project Guide Our dedicated project page: current buyer information, registration protection, and a rebate calculator at Ziggurat's price points.
• Coconut Grove Buyer Rebate Guide How buyers approach the Grove — resale homes, condominiums and new construction.
• Miami Pre-Construction Buyer Rebate Rebate mechanics, registration timing and diligence across Miami's new-development market.
• Pre-Construction Buyer Rebate Overview How the rebate works when developer pricing is fixed.
• All News & Buyer Intelligence Development, construction and market analysis for South Florida buyers.