"Fortunately, the fiasco on Flagler is no more," Terrell Fritz, longtime director of the Flagler Business Improvement District, told the Miami Herald in August. The construction fences are mostly gone and traffic is moving again along the five blocks from Biscayne Boulevard to the Dade County Courthouse. For the first time in six years, the whole street is open.
The new Flagler was designed so it could be shut to cars and filled with people. The street is open now, so the remaining constraint is the budget for closing it, mainly the cost of police at the intersections. That budget will decide how often this fall the street is a promenade and how often it is a road with good sidewalks. Meanwhile, the wider sidewalks are bringing a new run of food and drink businesses.
A Street Built to Be Closed
The current design dates from the stalled first attempt. Work started in 2016 and the contractor was fired after about a year. Moishe Mana, who now owns much of the street, then pushed the city toward a bigger plan with brick pavers on the roadway and a curbless layout that leaves one flat surface for festivals and other events. He paid for the conceptual plan, and the city adopted it.
Section C, between NE First Avenue and Biscayne Boulevard, was celebrated as complete on March 4, 2026. It brought wider pedestrian zones, curbless sidewalks, public power outlets, new lighting, landscaping and public art. The power outlets and flat surface are there for street events.
The job is still unfinished. As of the Herald's August report, some sidewalk sections still needed work, and blocks finished earlier needed repairs for construction damage. The road surface is also mismatched. The brick pavers run only east of Miami Avenue, with plain asphalt to the west, because the city redesigned the project midstream and Mayor Eileen Higgins and City Manager James Reyes chose to reopen the street quickly. The city has another $1 million from the Florida Legislature that could pay for more brick or a formal entrance to Flagler. That money requires matching local funds, and no decision had been made as of August.
The Bill for a Car-Free Weekend
The street got its first real test this spring. Weekends on Flagler started in February as a seven-week pilot and grew into four months of Friday-through-Sunday programming on the 100 and 200 blocks. It included Street Stages concerts on Friday and Saturday nights, a Saturday Green Market and a Sunday Vintage Market, and the season ended in May. During the FIFA Fan Festival in Bayfront Park in June and July, the Downtown Development Authority set up a soccer pitch in the middle of Flagler. Lost Boy put up an air-conditioned pop-up tent.
Fritz told the Herald that the bars and restaurants saw "an enormous influx." He also gave the cost.
| Item | Figure, per the Miami Herald, August 2026 |
|---|---|
| Weekend closures in the 2026 pilot | 14 |
| Cost of those closures | More than $130,000 |
| Share that went to Miami police securing intersections | About 70% |
| Estimated cost of a full winter season | $415,000 |
Fritz said the BID and the DDA can't justify spending $415,000. The DDA is paying for a traffic analysis to find a version that takes less money and fewer officers, and the two agencies are raising sponsorships. As of today, the BID's website says it is still seeking funding to bring Weekends on Flagler back in late October with an expanded 24-weekend season running through April 2027. Programming announcements are still to come.
The Saturday market has dates. A Green Market on Flagler is listed every Saturday from October 3 through December 26, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., on the 200 block. The Flagler BID produces it with East Coast Marketplace, admission is free, and the street is closed to traffic during market hours. So for now, one block is car-free one day a week. No fall dates had been posted for the Sunday Vintage Market or the Street Stages concerts as of this writing.
The Sidewalk Is Doing the Work Meanwhile
On days the road stays open, the wider sidewalks help. A zoning change that came with the streetscape exempts places serving alcohol on Flagler from spacing restrictions. It also lets them put out sidewalk seating along the whole street. The DDA gave cash grants to help several new businesses open. The Herald counted 13 businesses that had opened this year or were about to open on Flagler and its side streets, plus seven more with signed leases. It described the leasing as mostly food and beverage, which points toward an entertainment district more than the shopping street Flagler used to be.
That count includes some businesses that arrived a while ago, so the dates below come from each business's own reporting. Walking from the courthouse end toward the bay:
| Stop | Address | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Backbone Wine Co., owner Hannah Stroud | 29 E. Flagler St. | Open; no exact opening date published |
| Fratesi's Pizza | 69 E. Flagler St. | Open since July 2025 |
| Flagler St. Bakery, owner and baker Julian Gheiler | 12 NE First Ave. | Opened August 7, 2026 |
| Cigar Club Miami, run by Elad Smadja | 106 NE First St. | Open; reports differ, with one dating it to January 2023 and another to February 2026 |
| Sippin' on Saigon | 215 N. Miami Ave. | Listed as open in September 2026 |
| Blind Pig Gallery | 243 E. Flagler St. | Lease signed; listed as coming soon |
| Phở Nam, from Tam Pham and Harrison Ramhofer | 270 E. Flagler St. | Opened September 3, 2026 |
Two of these openings came straight out of the street's comeback. Flagler St. Bakery grew from a Sunday pastry kiosk Gheiler ran outside Over Under this spring, so the shop began as part of this year's street programming. Phở Nam comes from the couple behind Tâm Tâm, chef Tam Pham and sommelier Harrison Ramhofer.
The two blocks finished first are where the longtime bars held on. The Herald named Lost Boy Dry Goods and Over Under as stalwarts that stayed open while other businesses closed during the construction. Those blocks now have the brick roadway, and the 200 block is where the Saturday market sets up.
What's Still Waiting
Several big pieces are still unsettled.
Mana bought the former SunTrust Bank tower at Flagler and Biscayne for $110 million in March. He has repainted his storefronts on the 100 block and put new glass fronts on them, using colors from the Mona Lisa mural he commissioned on his headquarters tower at East First Avenue. As of August, most of those storefronts were still vacant. His demolition of a half block of condemned buildings around 48 E. Flagler can only happen overnight, when the Metromover isn't running, so it is slow. The new sidewalk along that stretch is still partly fenced off. Once the teardown is done, Mana and the DDA plan a temporary soccer park on the site with one regulation field and some mini pitches.
The Olympia Theater at 174 E. Flagler hosted Miami Film Festival screenings in April. As of August, the Herald still described it as effectively shuttered. The city agreed to sell it for $10 to a public charter school that has pledged to renovate it and offer programming, but specific plans haven't been announced.
Dates on and Near Flagler This Fall
- Saturdays, October 3 through December 26, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.: Green Market on Flagler, 200 block, with the street closed to cars during market hours.
- Wednesday, October 7, 6 to 8 p.m.: The DDA's Downtown Miami 2050 Master Plan community open house at Miami Dade College's Wolfson Campus, 300 NE Second Ave., Room 3210. Anyone with views on Flagler's future can bring them here.
- Wednesday, October 14, 6 to 8 p.m.: Chile Wine Fest at the Alfred I. duPont Building, 169 E. Flagler St.
- Late October, if funded: The possible return of Weekends on Flagler, which hasn't been confirmed.
- November 15 through 22: Miami Book Fair at the Wolfson Campus, with the street fair Friday through Sunday, November 20 to 22.
"It's time to stop talking about the streetscape project and focus on what's next," Fritz said. Several decisions will shape what comes next: the traffic study, the sponsorship drive, the $1 million in state money that needs a match, and the Downtown 2050 plan. Each could arrive within the next few months.
If you own near Flagler or are considering a building in the downtown core, these same decisions shape the blocks around it. Privé Advisory Group follows downtown planning and development closely and can walk you through what has been approved, what is only proposed, and what that means for a specific address. Request a Private Call.
