The Yard Is Closing. Where Do Wilton Manors' Garden-Café Regulars Go Now?
November 12, 2026
November 12, 2026
From NE 13th Avenue you walk past a few houses before you find the entrance. Then come the painted trees and painted sidewalks, and the eucalyptus trees left over from the plant nursery that once grew there. Over the years the paths have led to an antique shop, artist pop-ups, a clothing boutique inside a vintage Airstream, live music on restaurant patios, and Lola's Market, where women sold jewelry and clothing they made. The founder, Evan Anthony, bought the nursery property in 2003 and called it Eucalyptus Garden. Around 2009 he added the lumber yard next door, and the whole complex became The Yard.
That garden is closing now, and it is closing on a tenant-notice schedule. The apartment project slated for the site is on a slower one. As of the City of Wilton Manors' November 5 project list, the project still needed one last step before final approval. The kitchens are leaving first, and the block will sit in between for a while.
The redevelopment has been coming since 2023, so the plan itself is old news. The pace is what changed this fall. Here is the order of events, pieced together from the Sun Sentinel's November 3 report, Miami New Times and the city's pending projects list:
Items four through six took five weeks. Item eight is about 11 months away. As of November 5, the city's record had a plat still waiting to be recorded. As of early November, the city had confirmed a demolition permit application and nothing more. The garden is losing its tenants on the shorter clock.
When Kaplan Residential first announced the project in 2023, Morris Kaplan invited three restaurants to reopen in the new buildings: The Alchemist Café, La Mexicana Taco Bar and Voo La Voo Cafe. In April 2024, OutSFL reported that The Alchemist planned to run from a house behind its café during construction and then move into a custom space in the finished building. Miami New Times noted that the café's latest announcement does not say whether that plan still stands. Since then the three kitchens have gone their separate ways.
The Alchemist Café opened at 2430 NE 13th Ave. in 2014. Broward Palm Beach New Times named it Best Place for a First Date in 2015 and Best Coffee Shop in 2016. Its regulars came for the iced coffee, which is 24-hour cold brew from beans roasted in-house, mixed with condensed milk and brown sugar and poured over coffee ice cubes so it doesn't get watered down. They also came for the open-faced sandwiches the café calls slicers, like smoked salmon with goat cheese and capers, or melted brie with almonds and honey. The café's website calls this a brief pause before "our brand new location," which it describes as "an even more beautiful space." Co-owner Lucia Nunez told the Sun Sentinel the team plans to refresh the brand. Miami New Times reported that the café plans to move nearby and will announce the address once the space is ready.
La Mexicana Taco Bar is headed south to 925 N. Andrews Ave. in Fort Lauderdale, the former home of 925 Nuevos Cubanos. Owner Diva Name told the Sun Sentinel that she found that backup location three years ago, when the redevelopment was first announced, and that construction and permitting have taken up the time since. She put the cost of moving her hood system alone at $30,000. The La Mexicana website lists the Andrews Avenue address as "coming soon." Her notice set November 10 as the move-out date, and she told the Sun Sentinel she had asked to stay through the end of December.
Voo La Voo Cafe had already moved to New Smyrna Beach before this fall's notices went out.
Anthony pointed out to the Sun Sentinel that women owned all three: Elaine Potes and Lucia Nunez at The Alchemist, Diva Name at La Mexicana and Sylvie Le Nouail at Voo La Voo. One kitchen left Broward County, one is moving into Fort Lauderdale and one has promised a new space nearby. None of the three is set to reopen on the NE 13th Avenue block in the near term.
The project covers more than the 2430 NE 13th Ave. lot. The city's list puts it across 2449 and 2430 NE 13th Ave. plus 1209, 1225 and 1401 NE 24th St., for 190 apartments and 9,031 square feet of commercial space. Miami New Times, citing The Real Deal, gave the unit mix as 15 studios, 80 one-bedrooms, 77 two-bedrooms and 18 three-bedrooms, ranging from 635 to 1,199 square feet. WLRN's 2023 coverage described a six-story building with restaurant and retail space.
The January 2026 change matters most to anyone who walks or drives NE 24th Street. The original plan put a separate two-story commercial building on the NE 24th Street frontage. The approved modification removes it and moves its commercial square footage into the mixed-use building. The total commercial space and the 190-unit count stay the same. The shops and restaurants will share one building instead of having their own on the side street.
The vacation and agreements have been recorded, but the city's November 5 list still shows the plat waiting to be recorded before final approval. Adler Cooke told the Sun Sentinel that the process "is in accordance with city requirements to date." The landlord is moving ahead on its own schedule, and the approvals are moving on theirs.
At the back of The Yard, inside a roofless building, a mural honors the victims of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School attack. Anthony told the Sun Sentinel that for five years the space served as a quiet place of reflection for students. It was never promoted, and students came back each year to repaint it. He asked the developer to try to keep it.
The Sun Sentinel wrote that there may still be hope for the mural. Adler Cooke's statement for the city spoke about the project's art in general:
"As part of the city's development approval on this project, some existing art elements will be preserved and reinstalled on the property upon project completion. In addition, all new development projects are subject to the city's public art requirements."
The commitment covers "some existing art elements" and kicks in "upon project completion." It sits at the far end of the timeline above, after the plat, the demolition and the construction. Anthony also told the Sun Sentinel that his talks with Kaplan Residential were about carrying The Yard's character into the new buildings. He added, "There were no promises." The art commitment is part of the city's development approval.
For anyone whose weekend ran through the garden gate on NE 13th Avenue, here is how the route looks this season:
Diva Name described the place to the Sun Sentinel as "an escape," where "you feel completely disconnected from whatever is going on." She remembered neighbors bringing chairs and decorations when she was opening. The garden that neighbors helped furnish is closing on a notice dated September 10. Its replacement is still waiting on a recorded plat, and the art elements set aside for reinstallation return when the new building is finished.
When a block like this changes over, it affects nearby streets, rentals and resale timing well before the new building opens. If you own or rent near NE 13th Avenue and want to talk through what the Generation Wilton Manors timeline could mean for your property, Lauren Kahn Group tracks these projects block by block. Contact Lauren for a personalized market consultation.
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