Coral Gables This Week: Merrick Award, a 1,000-Kiosk Bet & More

It's Labor Day, so City Hall is dark and the trolleys are running on holiday mode — but the past week delivered plenty of Coral Gables news worth catching up on before the civic calendar roars back to life. Here's what happened, and why it matters if you work from (or are shopping for) office space Coral Gables businesses actually use.

A Merrick Award for a Gables original

The Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce presented its highest individual honor, the George E. Merrick Award of Excellence, to developer Armando Codina at a ceremony at the Biltmore Hotel, as reported by the Coral Gables Gazette and Community Newspapers. Codina, founder and executive chair of Coral Gables-based Codina Partners — the firm behind Downtown Doral and Beacon Logistics Park — has also served on the boards of General Motors, American Airlines, and The Home Depot over a decades-long career.

His acceptance line is one worth pinning above any local founder's desk: "Coral Gables has always been more than a place to build a business. It's a place to build a future." Coming from someone who could have headquartered anywhere, that endorsement of the Gables as a business address carries weight.

A homegrown company's 1,000-kiosk national bet

Speaking of building from the Gables: T-ROC Global, the retail-technology firm headquartered right here in Coral Gables, announced a partnership with California Pizza Kitchen to roll out automated pizza kiosks nationwide — up to 1,000 machines over three years, according to the companies' August announcement covered by Community Newspapers. The touch-screen kiosks turn out a pizza in roughly 90 seconds and are headed for airports, universities, hospitals, and office complexes, with initial clusters of at least 20 units planned across 30 major U.S. markets.

It's the kind of story that tends to get lost between Brickell headlines, but it underscores something we see constantly in the Miami office market: nationally scaled companies quietly running their operations from Coral Gables, where the talent, the address, and the quality of life line up.

Temple Judea reimagines a Lapidus landmark

Temple Judea, the city's only Reform congregation, has assembled a design and construction team — ELM ARCH, CetraRuddy, and RedDoor Construction — to restore and modernize its historic Morris Lapidus-designed campus along US-1, Community Newspapers reports. The "LEV – From the Heart" capital campaign will renovate the sanctuary and communal spaces while preserving the campus's signature three entrance arches. For a city that takes its architecture seriously, keeping a Lapidus work alive and in daily use is no small thing.

City Hall notes: a statewide seat and a long-running dog park saga

Two quicker items from the Gazette's recent reporting. Commissioner Melissa Castro was named chair of a Florida League of Cities committee that shapes statewide positions on development and zoning — giving Coral Gables a louder voice in Tallahassee on the land-use rules that ultimately affect every office rental Coral Gables tenants sign. And the long-contested dog park planned for 520 University Drive will stay in limbo a while longer: opponents have appealed to Florida's Third District Court of Appeal, with a trial now set for September 2027.

Meanwhile, budget season resumes the moment the holiday ends — the first public hearing on the city's new budget is set for September 15. We covered the full schedule, plus the coming sewer-rate increase, in last week's preview.

What it means for your office decision

Put the week's stories together and a theme emerges: serious, long-horizon investment in Coral Gables — by legacy developers, by growing tech companies, by century-old institutions. That confidence is one reason executive suites Coral Gables options stay in demand while other submarkets wobble; companies want to be where the commitment is visible on every block, from Miracle Mile storefronts to the Biltmore's ballrooms. If you're weighing where to plant your business this fall, the case for the Gables keeps getting stronger — we laid it out in detail in our 2026 guide.

Start your fall in a Gables address

At Gables Executive Offices, we make the move simple: furnished executive suites in the heart of Coral Gables with reception service, conference rooms, and flexible terms — a professional furnished office Miami clients will take seriously, without the overhead or the long lease. Move-in-ready today, steps from Miracle Mile.

Want to see what your business could get in the Gables? Book a tour and see the suites for yourself.