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N MIAMI CONDO NEWS — All About Condo Living in the Magic City — Edited by Heinz Dinter, PhD |
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Club to drum new life into downtown
The latest piece of the puzzle in Miami’s vision to transform a once-blighted neighborhood into a round-the-clock entertainment district is a nightclub that ignores history and common sense. The owners of Studio A have heard it before — that rock doesn’t have an audience in Miami, that live music clubs have the lifespan of warm sushi, that everybody’s too busy grooving to DJs and hip-hop to care. Studio A is housed in a bustling square block where two other nightclubs — Club Space and Nocturnal — already operate and three more are expected to open soon. And while every other club in the district spins the latest in electronica, hip-hop and dance music, Studio A will carve its niche as the live music alternative. “We’re trying something new. We hope to be the CBGB of Miami,” Robert Nowak, a co-owner of Studio A says, referring to the venerable hard-core and punk-rock club in New York City. Studio A has one big advantage: help from Miami’s Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), which has designated the club’s downtown neighborhood a late-night entertainment district. Stretching from Northeast Seventh Street north to the I-395 overpass, between North Miami Avenue and Biscayne Boulevard, the Park West Entertainment District is one of three planned by the CRA and the only one where 24-hour liquor licenses are granted. (The other districts are in the Omni and Overtown neighborhoods and have a 5 am limit for liquor sales, CRA executive director Frank Rollason says.) To encourage development, the CRA helps businesses with grants and services. To date, only Club Space has received a grant from the city’s CRA — $50,000 for plumbing renovations in March 2003. The CRA also spent $760,000 last year to repave, landscape and light the alley between Northeast 10th and 11th Streets, creating a central pedestrian artery dubbed Grand Promenade. Of course, there are live music clubs in Miami, including Tobacco Road off Brickell Avenue and Churchill’s in Little Haiti. But none competes with South Beach nightclubs, nor do any have 24-hour liquor licenses. Studio A is housed in a 1936 warehouse and looks like a discotheque appointed in industrial chic decor. Crystal chandeliers hang from the ceiling, and a large glass box — or “dancequarium” for dancers — stands at the center of the main bar. Two VIP areas flank the 1,000-square-foot dance floor, which sits before a large performance stage. The club can fit up to 460 people. But Nowak feels strongly the area will benefit from a transformation of the downtown area that includes the opening of the Miami Performing Arts Center to the north and Bicentennial Park, to the east, which will be home to the new headquarters of Miami Art Museum and the Miami Museum of Science and Planetarium. “It’s going to be better and better,” Nowak predicts. ``I see a lot of restaurants, cafes. I see a lot of hotels, boutiques and shopping malls.” Nowak’s optimism is buoyed by his track record in New York City, where he owns the Delancey Lounge on the Lower East Side. “We had a similar experience with professionals moving in. Now it’s happening here,” he says, referring to the condominiums rising along Biscayne Boulevard. “In a couple of years,” says Nowak, who owns the Studio A building, “this area, this real estate is going to be untouchable.” Studio A is located at 60 NE 11 Street. Source: www.MiamiHerald.com.
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