Starbucks, vegan restaurant among new leases signed in Midtown Miami

Midtown Miami is hungry for restaurants.

A host of eateries signed new leases there, with a vegan restaurant and Starbucks headlining the list.

At Midtown Five, a new 400-unit luxury apartment tower, all 20,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space is now fully leased, said Jon Samuel, who handles leasing for the owners, a partnership between Magellan Development Group, J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Midtown Opportunities.

He said rates have hit $60 per square foot, triple net.

The largest tenant will be a new restaurant concept by Christopher Slawson, co-owner and chef of the vegan restaurant Christopher’s Kitchen in Palm Beach Gardens. The new restaurant will occupy a total of 6,000 square feet, and will include a separate takeout market that will offer smoothies, coffee and in-house baked goods, and will have an ice cream shop inside the store. All the ingredients will be plant-based, Slawson said.

For the new venture, Slawson is partnering with Megan Tysoe and her father Ron, who own Rooted Juicery + Kitchen in Cincinnati.

Their as-yet-unnamed restaurant at 3255 Northeast First Avenue will feature fresh vegetable dishes, items influenced by international cuisine, as well as a wood-fired gas oven for pizza. It will also have a full bar with a specialty cocktail menu, fresh juices, beer and wine. Slawson said he plans to open in January.

“We just really fell in love with the location,” he said. “And looking at what is going on down there with all the real estate development in the Design District, Wynwood, downtown and Brickell, it’s the most central, most convenient [location] for everyone.”

Lime Fresh Mexican Grill will also open at Midtown Five at 125 Northeast 32nd Street next month, Samuel said. Other tenants that have recently opened at the 26-story apartment tower include MidiCi Neapolitan Pizza; Biostation, a medical wellness center; Solidcore Pilates and Omni Nail Salon.

Nearby, the recently completed Hyde Midtown’s ground-floor retail space is set to house the neighborhood’s first Starbucks, which will occupy 1,800 square feet on the corner of 34th Street and Midtown Boulevard, Samuel said. Starbucks just signed the lease this week and plans to open in December.

“We’ve been trying to get them for years,” said Samuel, who handles leasing for the owner of the ground-floor retail, Midtown Opportunities.

A Spanish tapas restaurant, Casa Monos, is in the final stages of signing a lease for the other ground-floor restaurant space at Hyde, taking 2,710 square feet with an indoor/outdoor bar and patio, he said. The restaurant is expected to open in the first quarter of next year.

Hyde’s retail space is now 75 percent leased, he said. Other restaurant tenants with plans to open by the end of the year include Thai Express, a fast casual Thai restaurant that will be taking 1,600 square feet; and Burgerim, a fast casual restaurant that specializes in mini burgers, which will also have 1,600 square feet.

Rates at Hyde are also in the $60s per square foot range, he said.